


Druggy

by Valaks



Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Alex Rider is a BAMF, Alex and Ben Partnership Fic, At Least Not Without Warning, But He is Also a Teenager, Friends Don’t Take Friends on Dangerous Missions, Mission Fic, friendship drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25470703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valaks/pseuds/Valaks
Summary: To Tom, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Program has been an excuse to get out of the house. All he has left is the Residential Project. 5 days away from his parents. Bliss. Except he got stuck in a group with the druggy rich kid who seems determined to make their lives hell.OrAlex wanted to do something nice for his best mate that has stuck by him through 2 years of bullying and heartache but he doesn’t always think things through. Thankfully he has his partner (that he definitely doesn’t deserve) there to help.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 127





	1. Chapter 1

Day 0: 

Alex was on his final lap when he spotted the figure on the bench near the park entrance. He repressed a sigh and slowed down. Almost 2 years of working together meant he would know him anywhere even with his normal dark brown hair bleached sandy blonde. 

“Hey, Dad.” Alex greeted warmly 

“Hey, kid. You finished up?” The man stood and folded the newspaper, sliding it under his arm, ever the picture of the patient father waiting on his son to burn some energy. 

“Yeah, you know you don’t have to wait on me. It’s a run around the park, nothing’s gonna happen.” He returned as they headed for the nearby park exit. 

“You’re a trouble magnet.” Ben said with more seriousness than the ruse called for but ruffled his sweaty hair affectionately. One look at the car park told him exactly where they were going. It was still early so there weren’t many choices but it was obvious Smithers had found out that Ben was picking Alex up. The man always gave them the best rides, if a little flashy, for no discernible reason other than to see the smile on Alex’s face when he went to visit

“And who do you think I get that from” Alex teased, walking around to the passenger’s side and slid into the leather interior. 

As soon as he shut the door Ben rounded on him “ _ That’s _ the cover you pick? I don’t even look old enough to be your Dad, I would have been 10!”

“That’s been our cover 4 times and no one’s even blinked once.”

“That’s because Smithers added gray to my hair ‘for distinction’.”

“I would argue that I’ve contributed more gray to your hair than Smithers has.”

“You’re not wrong.” Ben groused as he shifted the car in gear and pulled out. “Home then work?”

“Yeah, I’d appreciate the chance to change. I’m sure you would appreciate it too.” Ben sniffed pointedly and Alex rolled his eyes. Such a drama queen. “Any idea what we’re going in for?”

“They told me it was a rush mission and to get you in as soon as possible.”

Alex tensed “Maybe we should head straight there then...”

“It’s fine, we can play the ‘teenagers sleep in’ angle.”

“Ben, I have two tails every time I go running, I think they know.”

“Why  _ don’t _ you sleep in like a normal teenager?”

“You know the answer to that,  _ Dad _ .” Deflection and humor - two of his unhealthy coping mechanisms according to the shrink Jones had negotiated him into seeing in exchange for having Ben as his partner and primary contact instead of Crawley. It was worth it if, for no other reason, that it made things a lot smoother with Mrs. Bedfordshire who Ben had charmed easily saying he was Alex’s social worker. Not that he was the best steward of the title, he had, on more than one occasion, pulled him out of school for the sole purpose of taking him somewhere to relax for an afternoon. Alex couldn’t really bring himself to be all that mad about it, the tutors Jones provided had gotten him caught up enough to stay in the top form. Besides, a little time off was healthy, especially when it didn’t involve MI6.

Ben just rolled his eyes “How’s your summer been so far?”

“We’re only 2 weeks into it and this is the first time I’ve seen you, so good.”

“I’m hurt, Alex, really I am.”

“You chose to be the harbinger of bad news so I don’t want to hear it.”

“I can ask Jones to send Crawley instead, you two always had such a good relationship.”

“At least Crawley didn’t talk.”

“He also didn’t get you a nice ride so maybe you should shut up and appreciate the hospitality.”

“Don’t take credit for Smithers’ work.”

“Who do you think asks Smithers?”

“Someone who enjoys a nice ride as much as I do.” Alex said with a smirk as Ben parallel parked in front of the house. “You’re welcome in if you’d like to wait inside.”

“I have to place a few calls so I’ll wait out here. Try not to take as long as you normally do…” he was cut off by the sound of a slamming door. Ben was such a nag.

  
  
  
  


Ben knocked politely on Jones’ door half an hour later having purposefully cut Alex off from strolling in like he usually did. Alex wasn’t entirely sure whether Jones had tasked the man with teaching him some manners and decorum but it honestly wouldn’t surprise him. Ben hadn’t gotten Alex to call her ‘Mrs. Jones’ yet so he still got to hold on to some of his teenage rebellion even in the face of Ben’s repeated admonishments. 

The woman had been talking with another man in a well fitting if unremarkable business suit. Alex quickly sized him up. He had the bearing of a former soldier and the haircut to match. He was fit but not overly so and carried himself with an air of importance that made Alex narrow his eyes unconsciously in disgust. 

“Agent Rider, Agent Daniels, please have a seat.”

Ben shut the door and took the seat next to the one that Alex had thrown himself into. It was always good to put on a show for company. Odds were Alex was either going to be partnered with the man or, more likely, loaned out to him. He’d rather get a feel now if he was smart enough to listen to Jones and take him seriously. From the sneering upturn of his lip, the answer was no.

“Agent Rider, this is Mr. Marshall, head of MI5. They will be running an operation and have need of your unique skills.”

“Which skills are those?” he already knew the answer but making things easy for Tulip was never his strong suit.

“Your age, for one.” the woman slid a file across the desk “This is Aria Sharpova, daughter of real estate mogul Ivan Sharpova. Recently, there have been some attempts on her life that were narrowly thwarted before she was pulled out of school. The attempts have ceased for now and while we have suspects into who is after him, Mr. Sharpova would like a firm answer so he can negotiate. Whoever the assassins are, they are not going after him, so we have to bait them with her. As I’m sure you can imagine, your prior training will be of use in ensuring she remains safe.” 

Prior training. Right. Is that what they were calling his time at Malagosto now? He could practically feel Ben’s curiosity. Time to move them past that “And her father’s okay with that?”

“He is confident in MI5s ability to keep her safe.” Marshall interjected. This was going to be a long assignment. He was only comforted by the fact that the man likely thought himself too important to oversee it directly.

He kept his eyes focused on Jones “His daughter will be attending the residential portion of her Duke of Edinburgh Program, I believe you are familiar?”

He was. Ian had pushed the program heavily - leadership, volunteering, and self reliance were all traits his Uncle encouraged and had enrolled him as early as he could. Alex had just gotten his silver before his death. Residential had been the last thing he had needed for the award but he couldn’t justify 5 days away from school and couldn’t guarantee that he would be given it over breaks with MI6 at his heels. After a while it hadn’t really crossed his mind until Tom had joined up and now it was a constant spot of frustration. Hearing about it so much from Tom after being unable to complete it himself due to his work rubbed a little salt in the wound, if unintentionally. He was sure if he asked, Jones could have qualified a heavily edited mission for the program but now it looked like he didn’t need to ask. “Her program is a small youth leadership summit being held at a hotel in Brighton. You are to keep an eye out and be the last line of defense should something happen.”

“Who’s my handler?”

Jones nodded to Ben who smiled softly “Where you go, I go, Alex” 

Sometimes he really did love the man. He had not been looking forward to dealing with some schmuck from 5 who didn’t take his warnings seriously. It was the whole reason he had requested Ben as a partner in the first place. Ben did sometimes get caught up in Alex’s teenage cover and he didn’t always act on Alex’s intuitions but he always listened and that’s really all he could ask for.

“Agent Daniels will be posing as an instructor on teamwork.” Alex stifled a derisive snort but Ben seemed to sense it and shot him a sharp look. “Your details and the flash drive with the presentation materials are in the file.”

“How many kids will be there exactly?” If this was a big meetup his job was going to be infinitely difficult.

Marshall took the question “There are 18 attendees, well, 19 now. Their dossiers are in the file. You will be placed in a small group of 4 with her and your room will be next to hers. This program is typically reserved for upper class participants who don’t want to get their hands dirty in a traditional residential project.” Marshall  _ would _ disapprove of that and frankly Alex would agree, it was convenient for this mission but kind of defeated the purpose of the program. 

“An old friend has graciously offered to help with your cover, you will be David Sprintz, younger brother of James. You’re a little old to be finishing the program so we opted for a fiction rather than taking on his identity. He has a similar reputation to James should you need to take some questionable actions in support of the assignment.”

“Why not create a new identity?”

“The program starts tomorrow and you will have enough on your mind without having to juggle an unfamiliar identity. None of the participants have met James and their families do not run in the same circles as his so you will have leeway. Smithers has the social media updated as well as everything you will need for your disguise.” Jones dismissed 

“Wait” he interrupted. This was a stupid idea, a really stupid idea, but he had to ask. “Can I talk to you Mrs. Jones?”

She arched an eyebrow but was cut off before she could ask why “If it’s about the mission it’s my op so I will need to be here for it.”

Damn. Alright, time to tank his credibility. “There‘s another spot open at the summit, it’s supposed to have an even number of participants to work.”

“Ideally, yes.” She nodded

“Tom, my friend, needs a residential project and couldn’t find one for this year and he’s going into trade school in the fall. Can he fill the spot?”

“You’re sure you want him in the middle of this?”

“He would be in no more danger than any other participants, I trust MI5 to keep them safe.” He echoed the man’s words which was probably a bad idea given he was asking a favor. “Besides I would be as far away from him as I can be. I don’t want him to know I’m there.”

“Unfortunately we would need him in your group solely because we know he’s not a threat. We can’t exactly rule teenagers out as potential actors.”

“Fine, but he doesn’t know who I am.”

“That would be acceptable.” Jones nodded 

“You can’t be agreeing with this.” Marshall huffed

“I’m not. You are if you want to use my agent.”

“He’s obviously not taking this seriously.”

“I assure you, Sam, Alex is very serious about his job. I know you do not have the clearance level to access his full file but I can assure you his record is spotless and his qualifications, particularly for this kind of assignment, are extensive.” Well  _ that _ made it clear what Jones’ opinion of Marshall was. 

“This is ridiculous, bringing an attachment on mission is not allowed.” 

That was news, from what he had gathered his Uncle had done it quite often. A side look from Jones acknowledged as much. “Alex does not ask for many things in exchange for his service. A friend attending a youth conference is not unusual or an undue burden, especially when the organizers wanted to pull in another participant already. At least this way it is a known entity.”

“Fine.” The man growled then looked to Alex “You better be as good as she says you are.”

He was saved from answering by Ben who stood “He is, sir.” He picked up the files off the desk “Mrs. Jones” he nodded and left, Alex trailing behind him.

As soon as the door shut Ben turned to Alex “This is a bad idea.”

“I know but I had to ask, Tom was devastated when he couldn’t get into one.”

“You’re a good friend” Ben affirmed in that patient tone that meant Alex had done something unmistakably his age. “but you should not mix friends and work.”

“What about you Ben?” He asked hesitantly. Ian hadn’t exactly been a good example with this kind of thing. Mainly because Ian didn’t  _ have  _ friends. 

“Making friends  _ at  _ work is fine. Just be careful that you don’t let him distract you. I would hate to prove Marshall right.”

“I’ve messed up the op already, haven’t I?” Alex sighed as they climbed into the lift.

“No you haven’t. It’s a little more complicated, sure, but things always are around you.” Alex winced and Ben rested a hand comfortingly on his shoulder “You know I will always have your back, Alex. If anything comes up we’ll figure it out.”

Alex flashed him a grateful smile. Being his partner wasn’t easy, Alex knew that. It must be hard for the man to switch between respecting his extensive experience in the field and handling the unpredictable glimpses of naïveté caused by his age. He did a good job of it, though, without coming across as condescending. Most of the time. 

They stepped into the gadgeteer’s workshop cautiously, most agents knew better than to stroll in confidently. Smithers was protective of his work and had a rather ingenious if painful security system. Failed experiments were also a possibility. Best to be alert. Not that they had anything to fear, the man was beaming at them from in front of a small table where a few gadgets were laid out. 

“Smithers” Alex smiled “Thank you for the ride, it’s incredible”

“Anything for you, old bean. Unfortunately, I can’t be of much help for this mission given the short deadline. I mainly had to pick through some of my old stock from when you started - so I have some metal eating acne cream, a Globe key ring that doubles as a smoke bomb - just turn it three times and throw - and a watch with the standard features as well as a direct communication to Agent Daniels’ when you hold the side button. otherwise you have the updated phone still?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Still have all of your tranquilizers?”

“Yes, sir”

“Excellent, there isn’t much else I can do for you on this gadget wise. Disguises provided your wardrobe” he indicated to the bag sitting next to the table. “Standard kit for you, Ben, unfortunately, you’re not as exciting as Alex.”

“So true” Alex murmured and dodged the elbow the man struck playfully out 

“What about that extra special thing we discussed, Smithers?”

“Oh! Of course!” he waddled over to a shelf and dug through before pulling out something made of Velcro and cloth and set it with his gadgets 

Alex studied it then his eyes widened “I’m getting a gun?” Maybe working with 5 wouldn’t be so bad. Jones still refused to arm him despite knowing full well he was trained. He didn’t  _ want  _ to shoot anyone but knowing that he didn’t necessarily  _ have  _ to rely on his hand to hand combat skills would be nice. Ben’s combat knife present from last year excluded.

“You’re not.” Ben stated plainly and Alex shot him a confused look “not from 5 or 6 at least, you’re getting one of my guns. Jones said you’re the last line of defense and with your luck something’s going to get by. I’ve been in the range with you, so I know your Uncle taught you to shoot, I’d prefer you not scar all the kids by shooting someone in front of them but I trust your judgment. If anyone finds out, I lose my job and you go back to Crawley so be smart about it?”

“Thanks, Ben.” He turned back to Smithers as he started to collect his gadgets and bag. “Thank you too, you didn’t have to do this” he said, holding up the cloth

“Anything I can do to help. It’s ultra lightweight but it’s designed to loop around the belt in the back and be worn under the jeans. It should be discreet enough for you to get by.

He threw the likely hideously expensive leather duffel over his shoulder and favored the man with a smile “Thanks again for the help, Smithers. I’ll stop by after to tell you how you saved my life this time.”

“See that you do, Ben does not tell the stories half as well as you do,” Alex imagined he didn’t. Mainly because Alex used his gadgets when everything went to hell and Ben was usually angry at seeing the ‘stupid, reckless, and self destructive’ lengths Alex would go to in order to accomplish the mission. He imagined that frustration came across quite clearly in subsequent retellings. 

Ben for his part just rolled his eyes and turned towards the door with a long suffering sigh, Alex shared a final smile with Smithers and followed his partner out of the room.

  
  
  


Tom was practically vibrating with excitement as he pedaled down the road, phone held up to his ear.  _ Pick up pick up pick up. _

“Rider.” 

“Mate, you’ll never believe it!” 

“Believe what?” He swerved to avoid a woman pushing a pram, ignoring her vicious glare

“I got in, a spot in a residential project opened up!”

“That’s great, Tom, when is it?” 

“Tomorrow” he said hesitantly, they had planned a week long movie marathon. He didn’t want to blow Alex off, it was rare enough that he was home for that long, but he  _ had  _ to do this.

“Rather sudden, isn’t it?” there was a smile in Alex’s voice that relaxed him.

“You’re not mad?”

“Mate, do you even know how many times I’ve taken off and left you  _ without _ a call? No I’m not mad, I’m really happy for you. I know this means a lot to you.” 

Alex had no idea how much it meant. Getting out of the house for 4 nights was a mercy. Summer was always the worst because he didn’t have homework as an excuse to get away and he could only stay at Alex’s for a few nights before he started to feel guilty at being a burden. His other friends from school would let him come over every once in a while if it got really bad. Alex was the only one who had given him a key and the codes just in case he was gone. But this...this was a no strings attached 5 day stay in  _ Brighton _ . 

“I wish you could come, I know it’s the only thing you had left.” He said somewhat guiltily. Alex had been good about Tom’s interest in D of E. He had given him all of the contacts from when he had gone through and even let him copy some of his papers. When Tom had gotten stuck in Silver he had encouraged him to see his career counselor for motivation. He was glad he did, the award hadn’t seemed to be important once he made the decision to go into trade instead of college but apparently some of the old welders and HR types really liked to see it on a CV as a sign of dependability. It could give him the boost he needed to get a good contract right out of training. 

“No worries,” Alex brushed it off quickly, not sounding the least bit bothered, “what’s the project?”

“Some youth leadership conference in Brighton.”

“How’re you getting over there?”

“They’re picking up another participant at the airport and then we’ll drive over.”

“Nice.”

“Yeah, only problem is it’s a bunch of rich kids. I’m one of the scholarship students to make it more ‘inclusive’.”

“Been there before, want to come over and see if you can fit into some of the stuff I’ve brought home from work?” He hadn’t even thought of that. His parents weren’t rich and he had nice clothes but compared to everyone else he’d look like a charity case. 

“What is this? A bloody girl’s slumber party?” He teased

“Your call, mate. I’ve dealt with kids like that at work. You’re gonna want to fit in, I promise.”

Alex was being serious because of course he was. “You’re a good friend.”

“You don’t make it easy, now get over here and bring a good movie. I’ll order pizza.” 

“I just pulled up.” He swung his bike against the short fence, locking it just as a glossy black Aston Martin pulled up to the curb. 

“Me too.” Alex said then hung up. Tom couldn’t see anything through the tinted windows but after a minute or so of waiting Alex stepped out holding a stack of files

“Wicked, mate, who’s that?”

“Someone from the bank, wanted to go over my college work study arrangement. Again.”

“Not happy you’re wanting to get a degree from uni?” He asked, shadowing his friend as he unlocked the door and turned off the alarms. 

“They get it, but my age is an advantage and it does have a time limit so they want to use it as much as they can now.” 

“You know they could write your degree for you without you doing any work.”

“I want to earn it, Tom,” he said as he sailed into what had been Ian’s office and began working on opening the safe “Besides, fat lot of good that would do me in 3 years when ‘6 kicks me to the curb because the villain of the week started cutting  _ before _ they started talking for once.”

“Fucking dark, mate.”

“Life’s a dark place.” Alex shrugged, tossing the files in and slamming it shut, spinning the dial. “Now, let’s get you fixed up so you can actually enjoy yourself there.” 

“I can’t believe you’re going to play dress up with me.”

“I’ll expect a call thanking me tomorrow.” Alex said drolly.

“You sure you don’t want to invite Vanessa and Roxie over for this, I’m sure they’d love to get into your drawers.”

“I thought they hated me, you know, like everyone else” Alex wasn’t wrong, the rumors had only gotten more vicious over the years, even with Alex getting his marks back up. 

“You still have the ‘bad boy’ cool factor going for you.”

“Felt like that stopped once I put what’s his name in the hospital.” There was a twinge of regret in his voice.

“Blake Hartley.” He didn’t deserve Alex’s regret. None of them did, really. Last year things had started escalating into physical violence as their classmates began to grow taller and stronger and wanted someone to test it on. Alex was a natural target with all the rumors about him. He either didn’t fight back or, worse, was caught by surprise and retaliated with a brutal, cold efficiency that usually required a visit to the A and E for the attacker and a trip to the bank for Alex. “He’s fine, by the way, in case you were trying to feel guilty about it, which you shouldn’t.”

“He had 3 surgeries on his arm, Tom, yeah, I feel a little guilty.”

“He deserved it for trying to sucker punch you at lunch.”

“He didn’t know.” Alex said softly “and I should have been more aware of my surroundings. That would’ve gotten me killed in the field.”

Tom sighed, this was not a good topic for Alex and it was one that he would never convince him of. He needed a distraction and there was one thing that always worked - giving him a chance to help “So you gonna beat yourself up or are you gonna give me a crash course in fitting in with uppity twats?”

Alex looked up, with a ghost of a smile “Sure, bit of a science to it, really.”

“If that’s the case I’m gonna need that pizza you promised.”

“Fine. I’ll order, you start going through my closet. There should be some clothes left over from a few of my covers in the back left corner.”

“Sounds good, mate” he smiled and disappeared up the stairs. College would be good for Alex. He would get a fresh start and he deserved that. Tom just hoped they would stay close.


	2. Day 1

* * *

Day 1: 

After a trip to Disguises for a temporary skin lightening Alex had spent the afternoon carefully reviewing the files and adjusting his posture to cocky, obnoxious perfection. Ben had approved, dropping him off at the arrival gates with his bag before taking off for Brighton without him. 

Alex had stood moodily on the sidewalk waiting for the car to arrive, every bit the impatient entitled heir that he was expected to be. The car was right on time - 15 minutes after Ben’s departure which would give his partner enough time to get settled into the op before he arrived. Unsurprisingly, it was a sleek black sedan. He had ridden with Crawley enough to know a government ride when he saw one. The driver quickly got out and he handed his bag over without even looking at him as the man opened the door.

“Why’s  _ he  _ here?” Alex wrinkled his nose in slight disgust watching Tom’s eyes narrow in anger with satisfaction.

“The project leader thought it best that we consolidate, Mr. Sprintz.”

“Fine” he threw himself into the car and buckled his seatbelt. Tom looked like he wanted to say something but Alex just grabbed his phone and turned his headphones on. They were a neat little trick from Smithers. They were sound proof and functioned normally except for the separate speaker on the outside of the ear that played muted metal music, perfect for the surly teenager look. 

He could feel his best mate fuming beside him but didn’t let it bother him. Instead, Alex spent the ride on his phone reviewing the blueprints of the building and sinking into a mindset he had long since locked away. Alex Rider, the last resort backup, was just the cover for the agent Jones knew was needed for the assignment - Alex Rider, failed SCORPIA assassin but top of his class at Malagosto was the real asset. He may not have been able to pull the trigger but he had the best training money could buy in  _ how _ to do it

MI5 had hopefully taken every step on how to  _ stop _ an assassin - bag scanners, guest lists, surveillance. Maybe not too stringent because they did need a lead but enough for safety. Big picture. Unfortunately for them, assassination was all about small windows of opportunity and planning. This wasn’t exactly a rush job. Sharpova had been planning on coming for months. So immediate searches of guests and vendors wouldn’t catch anything, at least not initially. Later, when they got desperate, yes. But not now when they had the luxury of planning. If it were him what would he do?

Bomb.

Easy. 

But where?

Front entryway would be first, remote detonation as soon as she came up but 5 would have already checked for that. 

Next, her room would be ideal but they didn’t have an exact room number just that DOE had booked a block of rooms. Too many resources with too much chance that the rooms would be changed and probably were. 5 would have checked those too 

Check in dinner would be next. 5 would have swept the room thoroughly but they would be stationary. If the ordinance had a high enough yield it didn’t need to be  _ in _ the room and a quick glance through the windows would tell if the target had arrived. 

So who was he looking for? Guests were too suspicious if they were in the wrong area. Any new staff would have been flagged by 5. It had to be a vendor. They could get around better and no one would ask questions. They could have set it up weeks ago as a precaution and if it wasn’t needed then nothing need be done. MI5s presence guaranteed she would be coming. 5 had been prepping for a week…

Ben. He needed Ben

_ Can you send me a list of vendors who have visited the property in the last week? _

_ … _

_ … _

_ I’m trying, Cole is being tight lipped. Says he’s screened everyone.  _

_ Then don’t go through Cole, go through the staff. _

_ Is there a reason I’m pissing off the Head of the Op before you even arrive? _

_ Because they’re going to bomb the check in dinner. _

_ We’ve swept it twice this morning. No one’s been in and out that isn’t on MI5 payroll. _

That didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already suspect. It wouldn’t be  _ in _ the room, he knew that. Something outside then...Alex trailed his finger along the blue prints then froze.

_ It’s not the room, it's the Coke machines.  _

_ He says those were swept. _

_ Guarantee you the vendor came back yesterday or today. Sweep them again. Turn them inside out. Same with the ice machine. _

_ Vendor was checked. He didn’t bring anything he shouldn’t have and didn’t make any suspicious moves on camera. _

_ The parts were likely already there; it just had to be assembled or one more part had to be added that you wouldn’t flag individually. _

_ … _

_ … _

_ … _

_ Found it. 3 incendiaries. Resweeping everything now.  _

_ Good.  _

_ How’d you know? _

_ Guessed. _

_ Alex. _

He really didn’t want to get into this but Jones has already hinted at it. It would just confirm that he wasn’t lying.

_ Training. _

_ Where? _

_ Does it matter, Ben?  _

_ You not answering means that it does.  _

_ Can we talk about this later? _

_ Fine. Your ETA is in 5 so get ready. Have you won over Tom? _

_ Pretty sure he hates me. I’ll make sure of it by the time we get in the conference room _

_ You don’t have to be aggressive about it. _

_ You don’t know Tom. Thankfully I do and the silent ‘I’m better than you’ treatment is the most effective. My goal is to make it through this whole thing without saying more than 50 words to the participants. _

_ That’s going to be difficult given what’s planned in your Teamwork course _

_ If you make me do a trust exercise you’ll be coming back to London in pieces, Daniels. _

_ Someone just volunteered to go first on the trust fall. _

_ I hate you.  _

_ I know.  _

Alex waited for the driver to open his door sneering silently at Tom when he got out himself. He was slightly jealous but David Sprintz would never lower himself to open his own door, notwhen there was help. He climbed out taking in The Grand Brighton. One side faced the ocean and pier - lots of sniper potential there. The other backed up to other hotels, even more potential. There were balconies across the front of the rooms which could be watched remotely but there were too many points of access not to have a guard and not enough room to have one discretely so as to not make the room a target unless the guard could hide behind the small cafe table and chair. A man couldn’t do it, but a teen? Alex knew where he would be spending his nights. Joy. 

He watched with feigned derision as the MI5 bellhop awkwardly grabbed his bag from the back to allow him to sweep his crisp white gloved hand along the side of it. Particle detectors. Clever. They probably had an X Ray machine in the luggage room off the front desk too.

He swept past them into the hotel lobby, following the signs to the conference rooms located towards the back of the hotel. Nothing had caught his eye as he had come through. Maybe the danger was past? He didn’t feel like it. Something was  _ wrong.  _ Something he had forgotten. He stood moodily at the window, arms crossed as he ran through any potential schemes he could come up with. Nothing. Nothing that wouldn’t have already been caught by any other sweep. Ceilings. Floor. Furniture. Outside structures. Internal….his mouth dried out as he saw a plumbing truck turn down the street. He quickly spun to the room and saw that most of the participants had already arrived. Aria should have just gotten in. The room needed to be evacuated. If there was even a chance...he didn’t have time to argue it. They only had seconds before Aria was confirmed inside. 

_ Think.  _

_ Think.  _

_ Think _ . 

He snatched his keychain from his pocket, twisted the globe three times then threw it into the room. Smoke billowed out earning shouts of alarm then screams as teens ran out. 

Alex waited by the doorway and grabbed Ben’s wrist when the man came out, hand on his gun.

“Was that you?” He demanded

“The room had to be evacuated, there’s a bomb in the plumbing.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t have time. I didn’t figure it out until I saw the van and Aria was supposed to be in there any minute.”

Ben surveyed him “Come on, you need to talk to Cole. He’s not going to be happy.”

Alex shrugged, wouldn’t be the first time. He didn't exactly make a lot of friends on mission and the ones he did make rarely survived. It was asking a bit much for this to be any different he mused as he followed Ben to the end of the hallway. The op center had been set up in a conference room. Tables full of computer screens encircled the room and around them it was like a hornet’s nest had been knocked over - agents in housekeeping attire and suits were hurrying in and out of the room. 

In the center of the chaos was a rapidly balding man, sleeves rolled up as he barked orders. As they walked in his eyes locked on Alex - sharp but intelligent. That would be something new to work with. “The hell were you doing, kid?!” 

“ _ Agent Rider _ believes that there was a bomb placed in the plumbing by the vendor who just left.” Ben filled in, emphasizing his title. He tended to get more defensive about it than Alex did. Being underestimated was half the reason for his success as an agent, getting mad about it would be petty at best and suicidal at worst. For this operation, though, he did need Cole to work with him which meant convincing the man he should be listened to. Alright, time to play hardball.

“There was nothing suspicious on video or found on their person.”

“Just like the Coke vendor?” Alex returned evenly

“They were working on an overflowing toilet on the fourth floor.” The man pressed

“Convenient that it overflows now. I don’t know about ‘5 but we don’t believe coincidences in ‘6. Let me guess, they were working in room 414? You’ll find the wall panel missing where the central pipes run in that room. This is an old hotel so they may not have even had to mess with the pipes themselves - just gotten into the space and lowered the ordinances. They wouldn’t have known for sure until they had access so they didn’t have a guest try it. You’ll find at least two devices, likely with remote detonators since they haven’t gone off yet. I recommend clearing them sooner rather than later.” 

The man surveyed him and Alex could almost pinpoint the moment he decided to listen. Then he looked up and the room seemed to freeze “Allen, block off the conference wing, Schumer I want IDs and a trail on the vendors, Reese, take your team and check for ordinances, Green, go check room 414, Schaffer, get with the organizers to have everyone settle in their rooms, reschedule dinner in half an hour in the tea room, figure out the rest from there. We’ll come up with a cover for the smoke bomb.” There was a flurry of motion with only the three of them at the center, like the eye of a hurricane. “You better be right, kid.”

“I was before, I am now.” He said evenly, with a confidence he didn’t really have “think we can end this pissing match if your men confirm it? I’d rather work  _ with _ you on the op, if I can.”

“Sure” he said disbelievingly. 

Alex just nodded, the ordinance team had gone out. It shouldn’t be long for confirmation. He just hoped he was right.

“Confirmed, sir. 4 found. Permission to extract?”

“Granted.” The man said, turning a wide eyed gaze to Alex.

Time to sweeten the deal. If he made any indication of rubbing in that he was right the man would keep him at arm's length “I didn’t catch your name?”

“Cole Bailey.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Alex Rider, MI6s attachment to your operation as an expert on assassination techniques and as the last line of defense.” Ben shot him a sharp look that clearly said they would be talking after this. Unsurprising. Alex knew he wasn’t going to let the training comment go but having it confirmed to another agent would only make it worse. It had to happen, though, to earn Cole’s attention and establish credibility.

“I thought...?” The man looked to Ben 

“No, I’m just his partner and handler. He’s the senior agent.”

Alex’s statement seemed to catch up to the man and he was met with a calculating stare “How are you an expert on anything, you’re 15?”

“16, actually, but the way I came about my expertise is classified, not even Marshall has clearance for that so I wouldn’t bother asking. Now is there going to be a problem or can we work together?”

Cole paused, seeming to weigh his options, “We can work together.” He finally said without any of the hostility Alex had anticipated. Had his hunches been wrong or if he hadn’t made any at all he was sure the answer would have been different, probably the curt  _ Stay out of the way  _ he was so used to. Cole was old enough and smart enough to not let hurt pride get in the way of the mission. He was still distrustful but not openly hostile and Alex could work with that. 

“Good.”

“Cover story first then?” Ben asked helpfully

“Got an idea?”

“Just say it was a prank. Pin it on me. It’ll give me an excuse to act out if anything else should happen. Plus, I’ve been gone long enough that whatever roommate you stuck me with probably suspects as much.”

“You’re with Harris.”

“Then he  _ definitely  _ suspects it.” Alex murmured “Alright, I’m gonna be kind of a wild child through all this then. Just pay attention if I act out really strong there’s probably something about to go down. I’ll try and give you a heads up but otherwise watch for strange behaviors.”

“Got it.”

“How are you guarding the balcony?”

“We have eyes on it and an agent ready to climb up if there’s action.”

Alex shook his head “It won’t be fast enough. All the attacker has to do is climb the railing above or below if they don’t already have a room on the floor. What floor are we working with here?”

“Second”

_ For fucks sak _ e. He didn’t say it but apparently his expression communicated it clearly enough.

“The choices were balcony or facing a building.” Alright, so not great options, he personally would have stapled the curtains to the wall in every room on the 2nd through 4th floors but Cole probably had a reason “We decided it would be best for her to have an easy escape if need be.” 

“Alright.” it was best not to fight about it. Let it go. He would handle it on his own “Anything else we need to cover?” 

“Morning briefing is at 5:30 if you can get here. Debrief is at 9 but we can catch you up if it’d be too risky.”

“I’ll make it.” Shouldn’t be that hard to get around for the morning. Tom slept like the dead. As for the evening...it would fit his cover to sneak out and he had thankfully brought the cigarette and marijuana musk sprays Smithers had given him two assignments ago. He’d used most of them up but he should have a few sprays left, enough to make it through the week. It was also conveniently disguised in a working lighter which would only help the cover. God bless Smithers. 

“I’ll walk you to your room.” Ben offered 

“We’ll see you in a few hours, Rider” Cole nodded turning back to the room already asking for status updates

They made it to the large hallway as Alex could practically feel the questioning gaze of his partner “Later, Daniels” he hissed under his breath

“The entire wing is blocked off.”

“And under surveillance.” Alex pointed out. “We need to be a united front to them so you’re gonna have to wait for answers.”

“You promised not to hide anything from me.”

“Ben, if the head of MI5 doesn’t have clearance for that part of my file what does that say about you?”

“I know that, Alex, but we’re partners.”

“Now is not the time.”

“So you’ll tell me later?” Damn. Typical Ben to try and extract a promise. Alex just remained silent.

“We’re  _ going _ to talk about this.” The man said firmly. Not amused by his non-answer, he supposed if the roles were reversed he’d feel the same.

“Sure, Mr. Holloway.” He said evenly, sliding into his cover identity as they approached the hotel lobby 

“I’m very disappointed in you, Mr. Sprintz” and there may have been a ghost of truth in that. 

  
  
  
  
  


Tom looked up at the sound of the keycard in the door. He had been stuck up in the room for almost half an hour now with nothing but some annoyingly familiar luggage. He had been given a nice room. Nicer than anywhere he’d ever stayed back when his family had gone on vacation and  _ much  _ nicer than his room at home. His roommate seemed to disagree, looking disdainfully around before focusing on Tom, eyes narrowing slightly. 

The sandy blonde man behind him stepped in before anything could be said, “I am aware that you asked to room alone Mr. Sprintz but part of the Residential Project is working with others, your father agreed.” 

“Well my  _ father _ can go jump off one for all I care. I’ll get my own room.”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible, the hotel is booked for the week and if you stay elsewhere then we will have to report to your father. He said to make it clear that were you to cause further problems that the military academy would accept your application.” the boy didn’t say anything to this but clearly was still pissed. “Dinner will be in 5 minutes in the Tea Room. I will be back to escort you down.”

The man shut the door 

“Bollocks.” His roommate said, throwing himself on the empty bed.

Belatedly Tom realized he still didn’t know his name. He did not want to do this. This kid was a prick but still, best to at least try. “Look I know we haven’t had the best start but we’re going to be rooming together for a few days so we may as well be friendly, yeah? Name’s Tom Harris” 

“David Sprintz”

“What was that about a military academy?”

“Daddy always threatens that.” He said dismissively 

“I take it he’s why you’re here.”

“Yeah, though this might make me a better person or some shite. Can’t leave or I’ll be sent to the academy but I can liven the place up a bit.”

“You know some of us actually came here to learn.” Tom bit out before he could stop himself. He had worked tirelessly to get to this point and this  _ kid _ just took it all for granted.

David just rolled his eyes “I would get stuck with the Boy Scout.”

Tom just rolled his eyes. Obviously there’d be no reasoning with him. Not that he should have expected it.

They played on their phones in silence until there was a sharp knock at the door. Tom got it, instinctively knowing that David wouldn’t bother. As promised, it was the man who had accompanied David to the room. 

“I’m sorry I realized I didn’t introduce myself earlier, I’m Mr. Holloway, I’m the sponsor of your small group.”

“Tom Harris” he extended a hand and the man shook it.

“David, let’s go.” The man pressed 

“I’m not hungry”

“Then you can be ‘not hungry’ downstairs with everyone else.” 

David sighed deeply and stood, following them silently down for dinner. 

They were escorted into a formal parlor style room with green wing backed chairs arranged around 6 round tables. Mr. Holloway directed them to one furthest from the door where a pale girl with striking red hair was sitting next to 

a tan blonde.

“I know I’ve touched on this with all of you but my name is Mr. Holloway and I’ll be the sponsor of this group. The four of you will be partnered together throughout the project so it’s best that you get to know one another now. You’ll learn a lot more about each other throughout the week but you know what they say about first impressions! I’ll leave you to the introductions.” he smiled and stepped away to give them some privacy, taking a seat with some of the other instructors. 

The table was filled with a heavy silence “So ummm my name’s Tom Harris and you are?”

“Aria Sharpova” the redhead spoke up. Her voice was crisp and carried the implication that this was all beneath her. 

“Camille Rutherford” the blonde said pleasantly 

“David Sprintz” his roommate sulked

This seemed to perk Aria up “Sprintz? As in the Million Dollar Man?”

“You got it.” He sounded resigned. Obviously he had to deal with this a lot. Tom almost felt bad for him. Almost. 

“Why are  _ you _ here?” Camille leaned forward, intrigued. She reminded him of Vanessa, one of the school gossips that he occasionally ate lunch with when Alex was gone.

“Dad thinks this’ll help ‘fix’ me or give me character or whatever.”

He expected them to press but they both seemed unsurprised “Same” Aria returned simply 

“Mum says that in this day and age the award even looks good for a lady to have on her Uni application.” Camille filled in. It wasn’t a reason all that different than his. He was here to get the award just the same but he got the feeling they didn’t have to work as hard as him to qualify. They all seemed to come from money, maybe they paid people to fudge the records? 

The group had turned to him “Just trying to pad out the CV, you know” he said casually and they seemed to buy this. 

Any further conversation was interrupted by someone at the table next to them hitting their glass for attention.

“Good evening participants, my name is Dr. Cooper and I am the head of the Brighton Youth Leadership Conference planning committee. We are all very excited to have you and appreciate your flexibility despite the  _ unexpected events  _ of this evening.” There was a look cast David’s way. If the kid was embarrassed by all the eyes turning to him it didn’t show. Instead he seemed to preen under the attention. Prat. “The groups you are with right now are the groups you will remain partnered with throughout the project so there is no time like the present to put those networking skills to use.” The speech was cut short by waiters appearing at the door “Far be it from me to get between teenagers and their food.” The man said, earning a chuckle from the staff table and silence from the rest of them. The din of conversation flooded back into the room as the man sat down.

“What was that all about?” Camille quickly jumped in, directing the question to David.

The boy smirked “They wouldn’t let me out to smoke so I just let the smoke in.”

“That wasn’t funny” Aria snapped and Tom couldn’t help but startle slightly. That was a bit… strong 

“Says you” David said casually as a salad bowl was placed in front of him 

“Yeah, says me!” 

Things were escalating, Mr. Holloway was already standing up. 

“I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it, just a little fun” he interceded, not for David but to try and calm the girl down.

She took a breath “Sorry, there’s just been a lot of stress lately with Dad.”

“Oh I completely understand…” Camille began but was cut off by their sponsor 

“Everything okay?”

“Yep” David said, even his pronunciation was infuriating as he popped the ‘p’ on the end. Aria shot him a nasty look for it. 

“Alright...” the man said, obviously not buying David’s answer and looked to him. Tom shared a look with Aria who gave a fraction of a nod which he relayed to Mr. Holloway who returned the nod and went back to his seat. 

Dinner was a quieter affair after that. He wasn’t sure their sponsor group was going to go very well but one thing Tom did know for sure was that he definitely owed Alex a thank you for the impromptu etiquette lessons last night.

It was well past 8:30 by the time the dinner and opening ceremony were done. Tom was grateful to get back to the room. He didn’t realize how little he had in common with them and while some things remained constant regardless of wealth - namely school and sport (Camille was a surprisingly passionate Liverpool fan) - a lot of little details got lost in translation so Tom took up questioning rather than be outed as the poor kid. The girls didn’t seem to mind and relaxed as he asked them more and more about themselves. They had parted on good terms with him, there was still a frosty awkwardness when it came to David but he also hadn’t put forth a lot of effort to mend bridges. 

Almost as soon as they were in the room David was in his bag grabbing a lighter and a pack of cigarettes.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Tom demanded as his roommate pulled open the French doors.

“Out for a fag or 6, you in?”

“No” Tom wrinkled his note. Smoking was a nasty habit and he certainly did to want to try it for the first time with David Sprintz.

“Suit yourself” he shrugged and then he was off in the night. Tom considered locking the balcony doors out of spite but he didn't want to get woken whenever he got back and instead pulled out his phone. He needed to thank Alex and check to make sure his friend wasn’t too miserable at home alone.

He quickly found his friend's number and dialed. Alex picked up quickly. Probably bored. Tom thought guiltily. 

“Rider.” It was always the same. Alex had picked the greeting up from Ian who, to his knowledge, had never said anything about it or at the very least had not disapproved.

“Hey Mate”

“How’s it going with the blue bloods?”

“I feel like a total fake. Is this how you feel?”

“Yeah, just act confident. So long as you act like you belong no one’ll catch on that you’re not a  _ total _ ponce.”

“You saying I’m a somewhat ponce, Rider?” He growled 

“I don’t recall saying that” Alex sounded innocent, he was anything but. “Did you get the forks right?”

“Yeah, didn’t think it’d be important but everyone was so proper.”

“You’re welcome” Alex filled in with a smile 

“Cheeky bastard.” 

“But I’m  _ your _ cheeky bastard.” He could hear the smirk in his friend’s voice “Anything interesting going on?”

“I don’t even know where to start. I got stuck rooming with the biggest arse. First he didn’t talk to me all the way to Brighton then we get here and he smoke bombs the conference room where we’re supposed to have dinner as a prank. And then he throws an absolute strop about having to share a room...”

“I take it he’s not in there with you now?”

“No, he went off to smoke. Thought about locking him out.”

“You really know how to make friends, Tom.”

“The other kids aren’t bad” he thought back, Aria was a bit haughty, sure, but most of these kids were and Camille was a bit of a gossip but she was a teenage girl. They’d gotten on well enough with him which was more than he could really ask. 

“Just keep pretending like you belong and that won’t change.” Alex advised 

How often had Alex ‘faked it until he made it’? Tom could imagine it was a lot and with stakes a lot higher than wanting to get on with a few rich kids at a DOE retreat “How do you deal with it, mate?” 

“Very carefully” he said with a smile “but really you get used to it after a while. It’s just acting. Turns out Ian was right and drama was a helpful club to join.”

“You didn’t seem to think that for the all male Romeo and Juliet play.”

“I thought we agreed not to bring that up?” Alex said mock defensively

“I think we just agreed not to share the pictures.” It was Tom’s turn to be innocent. There weren’t many things he could hold over Alex Rider, the things he could, he savored.

“Prat.” Alex groused 

“What’ve you been up to?”

“Just kicking around the place. The Bank called, they want me to go in tomorrow so if you can’t get a hold of me…” Alex trailed off and Tom could finish that sentence for him. Damn. He couldn’t catch a break. 

“Sorry, mate.”

“Part of the territory.” He could practically hear his friend’s shrug. 

“Still sucks. We’ll have our movie marathon when we both get back. Promise.”

“I’ll hold you to it, Harris.” The line went dead. It was an infuriating trait of Alex’s that he always had to have the last word. Too much time spouting one liners at the glorified villains he went up against, Tom diagnosed. Either way he was too worried about his friend’s mission to really bring himself to be all that annoyed. 


	3. Day 2

Day 2: 

Tom awoke to the sound of the creaking of the patio door. He blearily looked up to see his roommate crossing the room and almost gagged at the smell of cigarette smoke - and was that weed - that practically followed him.

“Ere were you?” He demanded tiredly

“Out for a fag, sleeping beauty.” 

“All night?”

“What d’ya mean?”

“You weren’t here when I woke up earlier” 

In typical infuriating fashion the kid shrugged, pulling pants and a jacket from his bag. “Lot of fun to get up to in Brighton for the right price.”

“Like what?”

“Booze, sex, drugs, anything really.” 

“You didn’t bring any of that back?”

“Just us blokes here and I don’t swing that way.” 

Ass. “I meant the drugs.” He looked away as David stripped off his pants.

“Not unless you want me to.” He offered,“you don’t strike me as the type, though.”

“I’m not.” Anymore he added mentally. He had smoked more than a few blunts with the football team and it’d been pretty fun but he hadn’t touched the hard stuff they had at the bigger parties. Since he decided to go trade he stayed away from it all entirely. Too many drug tests and he wasn’t willing to risk a potential career for a high. Not when booze was legal. 

“Good, Daddy says not to mix business with pleasure.” 

Daddy. It was way too early to deal with Sprintz, he decided. Speaking of Daddy... “Mr. Holloway said you had to stay here or you’d get sent off to that military school.”

“And as far as he knows, I did, right, Harries?” 

Tom was almost sure he messed up his name on purpose. Almost. “Harris” he returned stiffly “Why shouldn’t I tell him?”

“Didn’t know you were into baby sitting.” He switched shirts, leaving his undershirt on which probably reeked as bad as the rest of his clothes. Great. That’d be fun to sit next to. 

“I’m not. I’m in to ‘not getting kicked out of the program’.”

“Fine. Name your price to keep your mouth shut.1000 pounds enough?”

Tom couldn’t hide his shock. There were rich kids at Brookland but not like this. This was a whole other level. 1000 pounds. He made 20 pounds a month at the small gig he’d taken at the bike shop Alex used to work at. It’d take him 4 years to get that much and this kid was offering it like it was nothing. “You really want to just throw money at me?”

“Works for everyone else” he shrugged, pulling on his jacket and taking a look in the mirror.

With the money he had access to David Sprintz could do anything and if anyone had a problem with it, he just paid them off. Not even with his own money, his Dad was obscenely wealthy from what Tom looked up last night. He’d probably never work a day in his life, just party all the time while Tom would be sweating his balls off in some union contract and Alex would be out risking his life for this ungrateful son of a...mind made up he glared defiantly back “Well it doesn’t work with me.”

The boy turned around and surveyed him, he probably hadn’t been told ‘no’ very often “Thousand not enough? Fine, like I said Harris, name your price.”

“I don’t have one.” 

“Everyone does. Take some time to think about it. I’m sure we can come to an agreement.” David took one last look in the mirror, smoothing his hair down then turned toward the door. “You’re gonna be late by the way.” He said flippantly as he walked out of the room. Tom glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand biting out a few choice curses as he threw the duvet off. Fucking Sprintz could have given him a heads up.

For Alex, the day had passed in a haze of boring lectures on leadership and teamwork and advocacy that had been made exceedingly more painful because he was both exhausted from his watch last night and completely on edge through the whole thing. Each second was a minute, each minute an hour when you knew danger was present. Objectively, he understood that 5 had every possible resource protecting the conference room but that didn’t change the fact that an assassination attempt was imminent. Even they couldn’t stop an RPG. His reflexes were keyed up enough that Alex had almost jumped out of his seat when Camille had accidentally knocked her pen onto the ground midway through the last lecture. 

He could practically feel Tom’s judging gaze. Had it been Brookland he probably would have gotten a whispered “okay, mate?” from him, instead he got the reaction that everyone else in Brookland gave when he startled - druggy. He had cultivated the image this morning but that wouldn’t make it hurt any less so he pointedly avoided him, instead scribbling another furious doodle in his already full notebook. Alex Rider didn’t doodle anymore, didn’t have time, but David Sprintz was practically Van Gogh at this point. 

They were let out for dinner and Alex played a game of counting the number of agents he could spot lining the halls to the private dining room. 26. He repeated the same as soon as they entered, casing it with a practiced eye. Clear. His next step was just as familiar; he found Ben just as the man looked up from where he was laughing with another of the teaching staff. Alex nodded slightly, relaxing into the knowledge that his partner was nearby. It was slightly embarrassing but Ben’s presence made him feel safe in a way that little else could. He wasn’t sure if other partners felt the same way or if it had to do with his age. To his knowledge, Ian had never had a partner. And it would be too awkward to ask anyone even if his therapist would love that discussion. He just accepted it as one of the luxuries of having a partner. The flip side of that was paralyzing fear and anxiety when you couldn’t find them. Ben felt that more than Alex but he’d had his turn too. 

They were seated efficiently a moment later and Alex perused the small individual menu printed on paper that probably cost more than the wait staff made an hour - Veal Schnitzel, Herb Encrusted Tilapia, or Mushroom and Truffle Risotto. The risotto, then, Aria would be getting it too. He had resigned himself to becoming a vegetarian like her on the off chance that two of the same dish going to the table would make it slightly more difficult to target. Any assassin likely wouldn’t care about collateral damage but it would help to have more evidence and a faster baseline to tell if it was the waiter or the kitchen who was responsible. Camille was helping too, she had started mirroring Aria’s choices to make herself more relatable to the girl. 

Smart. 

Aria would be a good connection for Camille if they could form a bond now. The blonde’s family were well off but didn’t have the clout that the Sharpova’s did, her parents, or at least her mother, would be thrilled if she could make the connection. David would be a good connection too but he had been written off when it was clear that the choices were Aria or him. He didn’t blame her for her choice, David Sprintz was an ass.

The waiters moved seamlessly from table to table. Without a smoke bomb disrupting the proceedings things were moving much more efficiently. He idly committed each of the wait staff to memory, studiously ignoring the conversation around him with a surly look to keep from being dragged in. Finally their server approached. She was a serious looking brunette, writing orders down in long form with well manicured short nails. Agent. An assassin would have faked the friendliness required by wait staff. He assessed, placing his own order. 

“I didn’t know you were a vegetarian.” Aria stated primly. An olive branch from last night. 

He honestly hadn’t expected her to notice, she had been avoiding him at breakfast and lunch. He shrugged, not blinking when a tray of salads was set up next to him “Friend from school is really into it. Easier not to argue.” 

Aria sniffed, clearly communicating what her opinion was on him having friends or maybe of him doing it just to make someone else happy. Could be either. He didn’t really care. “It’s not just a fad you know, it’s a lifestyle.”

“Oh is it? Figured it was just one of those things girls did to stay thin.” 

A salad was placed in front of him and he didn’t bother looking up. David would never acknowledge the help. He would have to wait until she made it around to the other side. Tom had already dug into his salad with gusto and Alex made a face. He had told Tom to wait until everyone started when they had their lessons but he had forgotten. Too late now, not like Alex could warm him. And he hadn’t keeled over so it wasn’t poisoned, though he’d prefer his best friend not be the tester.

“Parmesan?” The woman asked the table and Alex froze at the unfamiliar voice. The shirt was the first sign of danger, it was clean but there were still pressed corners like it had been folded for easy transport. Her hair was perfectly coiffed, nothing out of place that would reveal she had been running around working a shift like everyone else. No sweat either. Her nails were well manicured and long for a waitress. A subtle bulge of a gun at her waist. He would say agent except the shirt and a slight press of anxiety around her that was more feeling than fact. Assassin. 

He needed to keep her in the room “I’ll take some” 

He said, voice even as he thumbed the button on his watch to comm Ben. Hopefully the man would catch on. He couldn’t text right now, going for his phone might startle her. Very few people expected a teen but the woman was tense and he didn’t want to risk her shooting Aria in front of everyone.

It was clear she intended to poison or she would have made a move already and she obviously hadn’t had enough opportunity to just lace the salads. She had her hands on the parmesan block and was holding it too casually for it to be the source. He studied the grater. Could the poison be on there? It would be the easiest method of application without drawing suspicion. Aria’s file said she always got a charcuterie when out with friends at her favorite restaurant so she likely wouldn’t turn down cheese. It wouldn’t be anything to lace the poison on the grater and carry it with her. She shaved some onto his salad and Alex kept his eyes on Ben. 

The man never looked up. 

“Is that enough, sir?”

“Yeah, thanks” he said reluctantly. 

“What about you, dear?” 

Please say no. Please say no. Please say no.

“Yes, please.”

The woman was over in a flash, already out of reach of Alex and definitely close enough to take out Aria if she felt threatened. 

“Thank you” she said after a few seconds. Alex hit the button again.

The woman packed up without asking anyone else at the table if they wanted some, and he tracked her movements as she went to the wall to grab another tray, already pulling another grater out of her pocket. 

Definitely on the grater. 

She couldn’t eat it. What to do? Stall, piss her off enough that he could excuse dumping her plate. He hit the button again. 

Damn it, Ben.

“Doesn’t cheese make you fat?”

“Not more than anything else. It’s all about calories in calories out.” Tom shrugged, the girls had obviously chosen to ignore him and Tom might hate him but he couldn’t take awkward silences. “Why?” And poor oblivious Tom wouldn’t have caught on why the girls were silent

“Just thought that would be something Aria might be concerned over.” The girl’s fork dropped to her plate with a clatter and the next thing he knew he was covered with ice water. 

He hadn’t expected that. Deserved it. But not expected it. Lucky for him it gave him the perfect excuse to stand up and dump her salad plate directly into her lap. 

“Guess we’re even” He smirked even as a very angry looking Ben and a less than pleased Rose, his female counterpart, arrived at the table. It wouldn’t take much to figure out what happened even if they hadn’t been watching. A man covered in drink was always at fault. 

“Let’s get you cleaned up” Rose said gently, escorting a furious Aria from the room. Ben latched a steely hand around Alex’s arm and dragged him out. 

“The hell was that?” He snarled as soon as they were in the hallway, briskly walking down the hall to command. “Just because you don’t like…”

Alex interrupted “Assassin. Blonde hair, neat, slightly wrinkled shirt. Poison on the grater she had with her.” Ben froze in his tirade and then he was relaying the information into his wrist, a microphone, he realized. That would have been fucking helpful.

“Cole’s on it and wants us in the op center. ” An ear piece too. 

Cole had toys and he wasn’t sharing with Alex which meant he still didn’t trust him and if Alex had them like he was supposed to they might have a lead now. 

“She’s probably already gone, that scene in the room would have been enough to escape.”

“Then why make it?” 

“If you’d answered my comms then I wouldn’t have had to.” He hissed as they rounded the corner into the op center

They waited quietly inside the door while Cole and his team were in triage trying to track her down. They wouldn’t be able to. It was too late. A change of shirt, take the hair down, add a sun hat and glasses like half the other nouveau rich women in the hotel and she would be gone. 

The cursing he heard from the group that was obviously tracing her steps was a sure sign that he had been right.

“Gone.” Cole growled. “Up security on the kitchen and wait staff. I want a full briefing of all the agents in the area. They were supposed to be able to recognize each server on sight. I want the names of the agents stationed at the doors she made it into and out of. Reese, sweep the area again to make sure there are no other unfamiliars. The target probably won’t go back down but we need to make sure just in case she does.”

The man finally turned to them “Good catch.” 

“Shouldn’t have had to make it.” he said darkly. Apparently he would be pissing people off today but he needed the man mad so he could get the point across. Cole bowed up, ready for a fight but Alex cut across him. “No. You don’t get to be angry. You’re withholding information. I had to catalogue the staff myself to see if they were agents or not when you obviously have a dossier on all of them. You have ear pieces and microphones that I could have used to signal rather than causing a scene that lost me the trust of the target.”

“Didn’t 6 provide you one?” Ben tensed behind him, Alex was mad at him but he would never sell him out. Not in front of 5.

“Last I heard it’s not their op, it’s yours.” Alex returned, Cole wasn’t getting away that easily. 

“It is, that’s why we gave your partner one so he could fill us in.”

“Oh? And how am I supposed to communicate with you when he’s not there, like in class?”

“We have that under control.” 

“Like you did just now?” he snapped, the man obviously still didn’t take him seriously. He still saw a teen where he should see an asset. Fine. Alex could fix that. He shifted his posture subtly, pulling forward the confidence and lethal grace earned from 2 years of fighting against people far more powerful than him. He didn’t carry it naturally like Yassen had but he could do it well enough to intimidate when the situation called. He watched with satisfaction as Cole and a few of his more experienced agents tensed at the abrupt change. “We discussed this yesterday. I told you I was an expert in this field. I warned you not to get caught up in the cover. And now, because I didn’t have the information until I deduced it myself, an assassin got within inches of the target and there was nothing I could do about it without getting her killed. Because I didn’t have a way of communicating it quickly, we lost a lead which means another day of that girl’s life being in danger. Either start working with me as an asset to the operation or I will have Jones pull me from this assignment. I’m not getting killed or being an accessory to her murder because you refuse to share.”

Jones may not be his boss but she would make sure Marshall heard about it who would filter it straight to him, likely along with a pink slip. You don’t mess with people that high up and make it out unscathed. Unless you were Alex. Ben’s tension in their joint meetings was a testament to the fact that he got away with a lot. Whether because of his age or just a bizarre fondness from Jones, he couldn’t say. Likely both. Either way Cole had neither with Jones or Marshall. The threat was on the table, and Alex had shown he was a valuable operative. Cole would play nice.

The man nodded “I’ll get you all the intel and connected into our network by debrief.” and Alex subtly shifted, his shoulders hunching slightly, limbs relaxing, stance softening. A normal 16 year old again. The room relaxed. “Thank you. Is there anything else?” 

There was a pause and no one spoke

“Then I’m going to get cleaned up. Agent Daniels I need a disapproving chaperone. You’ve done a good job so far, let’s get going. We can figure out a suitably convincing punishment in the meantime.”

Alex strolled out of the room casually, hands shoved into his pockets hiding balled fists. 

He waited until they were alone before he spoke “I’m sorry. I should have listened to the comm.” 

He should have, but would it have changed anything? Alex may have been able to find a way to communicate about the assassin to Ben but they still would have had to safely get her away from Aria without her getting hurt and preferably without drawing too much attention. The woman had been armed and if she had felt the least bit threatened she would have used it. They may have been able to save Aria but he doubted the assassin would go quietly. The action Alex had taken wasn’t ideal but it was likely the safest way to get the job done. Even if it meant she escaped, sometimes you just had to live to fight another day.

He studied his partner. Ben did look regretful and with good reason. This wasn’t the first time he had underestimated Alex. He should be mad but anger was a luxury he couldn’t afford in the field. And never, ever with his partner. The situation had resolved relatively peacefully - Ben wouldn’t do it again for a while, Cole would keep him informed and get him wired up, and Aria was cursing his name but safe.

Alex took a breath “It’s fine, just have my back, yeah?” Ben nodded, wanting to say more but Alex cut across him. “Now how do you want to handle this?”

“Obviously I have to call your father, if this was normal and tomorrow wasn’t going to be a cluster I would bar you from the ropes course.” And that was going to be a nightmare. He had forgotten about that.

“Daddy wouldn’t let you bar me, he would tell you to keep a very close eye on me, the organizers will agree after that stunt. ” Alex pointed out. 

“The organizers will want you out.”

“Not with the ‘donation’ that Daddy would make to ensure I stay.” 

“Point. I’ll run it by Cole so I can get a ballpark figure, 100,000 should do it.”

“250,000. I’m not that cheap.” 

“I need to talk to Jones then because my babysitting fees obviously need to go up.” 

Alex shot him a bland look “If anything I need a raise for dealing with you,” 

Their gait shifted as they rounded the corner towards the hotel lobby “Money doesn’t solve all of the world's problems, Mr. Sprintz.” Mr. Holloway chided.

“Daddy disagrees, it got me out of his hair, didn’t it?”

“Well it will not get us out of yours so you best cut the attitude.”


	4. Day 3

Day 3:

Alex woke up to the cool ocean breeze and the feeling that something was wrong. He scouted the area. Everything seemed normal. Nothing on the seafront. The balcony was clear...except for the hands and head leveraging up on the end closest to him. It had taken them one night to figure out which room she was in. One. 

He hated being right. 

He knew this wasn't a fight he would win - the man prowling over was easily a head taller than Alex and moved with the lethal grace of someone well practiced in martial arts of some kind. Krav Maga? Brazilian Jui Jitsu? Alex was sure to find out soon. He didn’t need to win, though, just give Cole’s team enough time to respond. A quick message to Ben wouldn’t hurt either. 

Alright. How to survive this? They needed the man alive and if he was as skilled as he looked Alex would be dead the moment he tried to pull his gun. Instinctive shooting was nice and all but you had to have your gun out and Alex had never worked on his draw speed. The man hesitated, he must have seen him. No sense in hiding now. 

“You the porter? Got locked out.” Alex slurred his words as he stood, palming his knife from where it was strapped to his calf. 

“I am, which one?” He continued to approach, there was no movement for a gun which meant he wasn’t willing to risk attention right now, a knife was unlikely too for the same reason. He couldn’t afford Alex to scream. Hand to hand then. Great. Alex wasn’t above bringing a knife to that kind of fight. He hadn’t survived by being fair. But he did need the man alive. He would strike at the hand then. It would slow the fight down enough for someone to arrive. 

He waited until his opponent was within range, then snapped out the knife and caught the man across the right hand and forearm. The man let out a choked sound but snapped his uninjured hand around Alex’s wrist and twisted, forcing Alex to drop the knife. He spun out of the hold before the man could follow through with the move and break his wrist.

A lefty. 

Of fucking course. 

The man followed his momentum and Alex was forced to sink to dodge a strike to the temple, but caught a brutal knee to the ribs. He rolled with it to lessen the impact and lashed out with his own strike to the solar plexus but it was intercepted by a punch to his shoulder. Alex grunted as he heard a familiar wet pop and a searing, white hot pain. Dislocated. Fuck. He hurriedly stumbled back, bringing up as much of a guard as he could then a spotlight clicked on, blinding him momentarily, just enough for the would be assassin to shove him bodily off the railing. He barely had time to brace before he was on the ground, ankle twinging in pain. Alex could hear the yells and pounding footsteps of Cole’s men on the balcony. There was a shattering of glass, then a gun shot and a scream.

His heart sank. 

Aria.

He looked up but couldn’t make anything out. 

Two people were suddenly crouching in front to him, asking rapid fire questions but Alex was too focused on trying to find out what was happening above him. 

“..shock” he finally clued back in 

“I’m not in shock. Is she alive?”

“Who?”

“The girl.” Another confused look and with a grunt of pain he raised his arm to hit the comm on his watch 

“Ben” his voice was strained even to his own ears. 

“Alex, are you...?”

“Status?” He cut across

“Objective is safe. Attacker is disabled and unconscious. Where are you?”

“In front of the entrance”

“Status?” He was running, if Alex’s adrenaline wasn’t crashing he would feel a little warm and fuzzy at his concern

“Couple bruises, dislocated shoulder, ankle’s a bit funny but that’s probably just some jarring on that break from Prague.” He catalogued

“Nothing else?” The man asked suspiciously and Alex watched someone who could only be his partner jump from the balcony. 

“No. Bit dramatic there?” He could practically feel the man rolling his eyes as he jogged over.

“Same way you got down” he reminded, not even acknowledging the two men kneeling next to him. “Think you can get up?”

“I’m not an invalid, Ben” he snapped but gratefully took the man’s proffered hand and grunted as his shoulder twitched at the movement. 

“Right” Alex glared at the sarcasm “let’s get you to a paramedic to get that shoulder back in place. Then we’ll head in for the debrief.”

“Which one’ll be more painful, you reckon?”

Ben seemed to consider it “Toss up. You’ll have to let me know, but I can hold your hand through both if it’ll help.”

“Oh shove off. See if I let you have any of my pain meds.” Alex groused, allowing Ben to guide him toward an ambulance.

Two hours later they were finishing up the debrief of the morning’s events. His shoulder was twinging but some light painkillers were managing most of it. His head was hurting worse, if he was honest. Group debriefs were tedious at the best of times. An almost successful assassination attempt stopped by a teenager acting outside of orders was not the best of times. 

“So far he’s not talking, 6 has offered to provide an expert to help obtain the information.” From what little Alex had seen of the assassin it would take a while for him to break which meant this operation would continue at full tilt until they had a name. 

“We’ll have to keep going until then.” Cole said grimly, clearly as enthused as Alex was at the prospect. “What’s our cover?”

“Domestic?”

“Not enough screaming and the kids all know that they have the floor.”

“Burglary?” 

“Possibly”

“Drug deal gone bad.” Alex volunteered “I have spray to make my clothes smell like weed. My room is next door to hers so knocking him through her window was just part of the fight. It’ll help Aria feel safe and fits my cover as a bad boy.”

“You sure? She won’t want to be near you.”

“She already doesn’t but she doesn’t have a choice with how the program’s structured, does she?”

“She might tell Mr. Sharpova about you.”

“If she does then tell him the truth or say it’s an excuse to keep the agents watching them closer. He’ll hold the line if it means keeping her safe.”

“Alright, Reese, get the story going. Papers and everything.”

Reese turned to him “Why aren’t you in jail?”

“No drugs were found and when the cops heard my last name they decided not to bother.”

“Alright, if you can run with it, I’ll make it happen.” Alex nodded. He and Ben had made worse things work. 

Cole took back over “Since we’re already here let’s get our briefing started.” He clicked to a slide showing a drawn out overview of an outdoor adventure area “This is Go Ape Ropes Course. We have booked it for the day along with the two other courses in the area just to throw off any potential tails…”

“It’s a logistics nightmare.” Alex blurted out and Ben nudged him discretely. He didn’t care if it was rude, the girl would be killed the moment she stepped foot out there. “There’s no way you can cover her.”

“Her father thinks we can and insisted that this would be best way to get them in the open.” Cole said tersely, obviously not appreciating the interruption. 

“She’ll be dead before we even see them.” 

“This was the best of the options they gave us, we already have…”

Alex cut across again “Then we don’t go. She’ll die if she gets anywhere close to that.”

“We don’t have a choice.” He was clearly testing the man’s patience. 

“We do, actually. If the whole reason we were going was because her dad wanted a lead, we have one. All we have to do is come up with a reason why she can’t go, a stomach bug’ll do the trick.” 

“We can’t just take her out. If she even gets a sniffle she’ll think she’s been poisoned and her father’ll have our heads.”

“Then we don’t target her. We target everyone else. Norovirus. Infect some of the food, cross contamination from some undercooked bacon. She doesn't eat meat so she’ll be safe.”

“The hotel won’t be pleased”

“We can scrub anything off of social media and I doubt a bit of food poisoning will be what these kids will remember about all of this. Whoever it is they’re going to get desperate especially now that we have one of theirs.”

“We’ve taken care of everything we can internally and the rest is being watched.”

Alex wasn’t impressed by the results so far but to be fair it was a lot to cover. “Good. I’ll actually feel better once the sniper rifles come out because it’ll mean they’re done targeting internally.” And what a statement that was. 

Cole nodded stiffly. “Alright norovirus it is. Schaefer make it happen strategically, we need most out but not all.”

“She and her roommate will need something to do along with any other kid who skips the bacon. I trust you guys have that covered?”

“Where will you be?” 

“Sleeping. Didn’t get much rest.” He gestured to his shoulder.

“Gonna be hard to do with your roommate throwing up.”

“Tom’s Jewish so he’ll be your headache.” 

“Fantastic. Any ideas on what to do with them?”

“Keeping them in the hotel without anything to structure the day will be difficult, especially because we’ll have to take out instructors to make it believable.” Ben noted. 

“An off site activity may not be so bad.” Cole mused “It would allow us time to regroup and revise our security set up here. Ideas?” Alex pulled out his phone.

“Bowling”

“Too much space.”

“Aquarium” 

“Too crowded”

“Escape Room”

“Possibile”

“Theater”

“We need her alive”

“There’s an indoor trampoline park.” Alex suggested, looking up from his phone, “It’s a stand alone building and would be easy to scout and secure. If anyone does attempt there it’ll be a guaranteed catch because they won’t have planned for it and there’s likely only a few entrances and exits. If you’re going to insist on something off property, it’s the easiest to defend. And they’ve got a team building program so it’ll be an easy sell to the organizers. ”

“If we move the entire activity there we won’t need to get anyone sick.” One of the agents asked 

“More people, more problems, and less of a good excuse especially when we haven’t rented it ahead of time and haven’t scouted.” 

Cole seemed to consider the arguments “We have a few hours. See if it’s defensible and run backgrounds on the owners and employees. If it’s safe, rent it out. We have the budget, the owners’ll bite. If not we’ll go for the virus.”

Only once the room was a flurry of activity did Cole turn back to him “Go get some sleep. You did good, kid.”

Alex nodded tiredly, he wasn’t going to fight that order for once. Ben eyed him suspiciously then made to follow him out of the room.

“I can make it to bed just fine.” 

“Not during curfew and not with your cover.” 

He hated him. Truly did. 

“So this is your excuse to be my glorified babysitter?”

“It’s not my fault Mr. Sprintz gets into so much trouble.”

“Not mine either.” Alex groused. “Anyway can you get me out of this activity? My shoulder hurts like a bitch.”

“Language. But I’m sure Mr. Sprintz will have to sit out as punishment for that little altercation.”

“Thank God. Cole might have to survive a day without me.”

“He’s stopped more attempts than you know. You’ve just caught the ones that came through the cracks but there’s been 17 others that I’m aware of. He’s not incompetent.”

“I know, it’s just easy to forget when you’re the one getting thrown off a balcony.”

Ben looked sympathetically at him but didn’t comment further. “I’ll have to go with the rest of the group tomorrow, well, today. You’ll be alright?”

“I don’t need a nanny, Daniels.” 

“Didn’t say you did. You just tend to attract trouble.”

“Right now Aria seems to be handling that pretty well. I’ll be fine.”

Ben nodded as they rounded the corner in view of the hotel lobby “Fine or not Mr. Sprintz that was incredibly reckless.”

“Well what’s life without a little recklessness” he smirked with an infuriating grin, his gait already shifting to his counterpart.

Tom never was a morning person but the sound of a fight on the balcony had him wide awake. He had stumbled over to see what was going on but when he walked past the empty bed of his roommate he had a sinking feeling he already knew. It was dark and he couldn’t make out much more than a distinctly teen figure fighting with a man. What the hell was wrong with this kid? They hadn’t even been here for two days! He had been worried when he heard the gunshot but from what he could hear through the thin windows only the man was hurt. He had tried to stay up and wait for David to come back so he could get some bloody answers but after an hour he went back to bed. Maybe he’d been arrested. It’d serve him right.

He awoke hours later to see David slowly getting ready. Must be hurt. 

“What the bloody hell was that last night?”

“Was what?”

“The fight, I saw you, you know. What were you doing?”

David shrugged but winced at the action. 

“And how are you not under arrest?”

“My last name gets me places and out of them too if you catch my drift.” 

Tom wanted nothing more in that moment than to leap out of bed and strangle him. “And just what were you getting out of anyway?”

“Mugging.” 

Tom snapped “Muggers don’t chase you up the balcony of a ritzy hotel.”

The boys eyes narrowed “Fine. He wanted more money for the drugs I bought off him, happy?”

“No! You led a drug dealer back to the room, you could’ve gotten me killed!”

“I didn’t exactly plan it that way, you know.” He said casually as he straightened his blazer. “I was just looking for a good time and the good time found me.” 

“You consider a fight like that a good time? He had a gun!” 

“That’s why it was cool, can’t wait to go back to school with that one. They’ll never believe it.” The boy was smiling at Tom through the mirror he was currently looking into. 

A couple of years ago and he might have thought the same, probably would have considered the guy a bit dangerous and stupid but thought it was a cool story. But he didn’t even want to think of how many times he had listened to Alex tell him exactly how not cool fights like that were. Had seen his friend nursing injuries, serious ones, from something similar because he hadn’t had the cops to step in and stop it. And this prat had done it because he didn’t want to shell out more for the drugs he bought. A kid with all the money in the world had gotten into a gunfight. For fun. 

“Grow up.” He snarled

“What?” David turned to him in surprise

“I said grow up. You think it’s fun to almost get killed like that - for a few measly bucks and a story? What about the other people you endangered? That guy could’ve fired a shot and killed anyone but you didn’t think of that did you? All you thought of was yourself and that might be giving you too much credit. You may be willing to throw your life away to drugs and fights and whatever else to help you cope with your daddy issues but you have no right to drag the rest of us into it!”

“And just who do you think you are to talk to me like that?” The boy stalked over to him. 

He hadn’t even realized he was standing until they were nose to nose. “Someone who’s actually going to have to work to get through life.”

“A poor kid, then” he sneered “You think you know about the world? You don’t. You’re gonna live paycheck to paycheck just like your parents and your grandparents.”

“At least I’ll have made something of myself! There’s a reason your daddy sent you here. He’s sick of your shit too! Sending you off to that military academy might actually knock some sense into you if I don’t get to it first.”

“Oh, you wanna fight then, Harris?”

He did. He wanted to punch this kid and keep punching until he was a bloody pulp. But he wasn’t worth it and that might be the best insult he could throw at him. “No. You’re not worth it.”

He thought for a second that Sprintz was going to throw the first punch but he just turned and stormed out of the room.

Tom didn’t follow until after he cooled down a little. When he arrived at breakfast he was relieved to see that David wasn’t even sitting at their table. He was at the one across from them sitting next to Mr. Holloway possibly because he was hiding from them or because he was made to. Either way Tom didn’t care.

“Morning ladies” he greeted he approached the table. They just nodded in response and he couldn’t help but notice how tired Aria looked, Camille wasn’t faring much better. “You alright?” He asked gently as he took his seat. 

“There was a fight last night.” Camille filled him in. “Sprintz and some big bloke with a gun who came crashing through our window. Bobbies got him but still it was terrifying. Do you know what it was about?”

Suddenly his anger was back, surging red hot through him. Sprintz almost got them killed too. Selfish bastard. “He’s a druggy got mixed up with some dealer.” Tom spat, gaze locked with the boy who had looked up when he heard his name. Hurt flashed across his face and somehow that made him even more furious. He had absolutely no right to be. Not with what he had done. “Hopefully they’ll kick him out.”

“They already would have if they could. His Daddy probably paid them off.” Camille sneered 

“Well two can play at that game. I’m not going to let some freak get me killed.” Aria snapped, pulling out her phone and stalking toward the door. 

In any other situation he might have tried to talk her down. He had served as the unofficial counselor at Brooklands for two years now, so he was definitely qualified. But there was no excuse for what Sprintz has done and he would do anything to not have to see him again let alone spend another night with him.


	5. Day 4

Alex slumped tiredly against his hand letting out another yawn. They were an hour into their second lecture series of the day. This time from an older, balding man going on about the importance of civil service, specifically, the justice system in keeping the country running. He had enjoyed a 25 year career in various positions in the courts and drifted to just talking about that. Alex was happy to tune it out just like everyone else.

His eyes caught on Tom who had shifted to the end of the table, as far away as possible. They had avoided each other for the most part since their fight in the hotel room. Classes were manageable but meals were the worst. No one at the table was speaking to him. He didn’t blame them, in their shoes he wouldn’t either. And honestly he wouldn’t even be bothered by it if one of the people wasn’t his best friend.

Alex had always wondered what would have happened if Tom hadn’t stuck by him at Brooklands. This was apparently the answer and he  _ hated  _ it. Tom could be downright petty. His comments were sharp and spiteful but Alex didn’t react. Couldn’t. Because if he did it would get too personal and might possibly blow his cover. Instead he just sneered back but didn’t say anything. 

Ben did a good job of hovering which helped Alex maintain the appearance that he was trying to stay out of trouble. He knew there was a secondary purpose. There was no way Ben  _ hadn’t _ noticed that Alex was struggling in the face of Tom’s seething hatred. He had the grace not to say anything. Didn’t rub it in, even though he could have. He just did his best to stick close and try and mitigate it and likely remind Alex why they were here in the first place. Ben had also used the altercation on the balcony as an excuse to move Alex into his room for ‘supervision’. He was supremely grateful because Alex couldn’t handle another fight like yesterday. Not when Tom seemed to be getting more spiteful by the minute. 

This was one of the many times that Alex felt like he really didn’t deserve Ben as a partner. As frustrating as he could be, as much as he sometimes underestimated him, as much as he was an  _ awful  _ nag, Ben cared. Deeply. And it showed in all the little things he did. Even their fight last night had been a prime example. Ben had tried to talk him out of his nightly vigil on the balcony. He had good reasons - we’ve got a sniper on it, they won’t try again twice, they’ve got guards at either end now but none of them were good enough that they would give Alex a clear conscience if something were to happen and he could have prevented it. Ben had folded at that but warned him not to complain about being tired. 

Right now Alex was close to it. He honestly didn’t expect to be this tired after one night, especially when he slept pretty much all of yesterday. In fact he didn’t remember being this tired before he got in the room. The heat wasn’t helping. 

Heat.

Why was it hot? It was summer, the heater wouldn’t be on and the room had practically been arctic this morning. Maybe the air conditioner had broken? He could hear the fans were still running. 

He sluggishly pulled out his phone and texted Ben 

_ AC broken _ ?

_ No why? _

Suddenly alert he took in the room again. Everyone was slumped slightly, obviously tired. Even the lecturer who had only been in here for half an hour was leaning against the podium massaging his temples. Camille was the worst she looked like she was about to faceplant on the table. She was the smallest so if there was anything in the air it would affect her the fastest. 

It was a gas, it had to be. 

Odorless. 

Colorless. 

Carbon Monoxide. 

He struggled to push himself up and was at Aria’s side before he even realized it, pulling her from her chair and towards the door.

She barely had enough energy to scream and thrash before they were bursting into the open hallway. Alex greedily sucked in the fresh air.

“What the hell is your problem?!” she screamed but he was saved from answering by Ben and a team of agents descending on the room. Thank God. He was too tired to come up with anything that could fit his cover. 

“Mr. Sprintz.” He snapped, grabbing Alex’s arm firmly and escorting him to a neighboring room as Rose checked over Aria, pulling her towards someone who had to be a medic. 

“Carbon Monoxide.” He breathed

“We know. Paramedics are on the way with plenty of oxygen, we’ll treat you all here. The agents’ll get everyone out. Sit.” It was to Ben’s credit that he knew him well enough to answer all of his questions in one go.

Alex sank heavily to the ground and he distantly watched as Ben crouched in front of him with worried eyes. “How are you feeling?” The man asked softly as he gently smoothed an errant hair off of his forehead. 

“Tired, got a wicked headache too. How...?” He trailed off, not having the energy to finish the sentence.

“Our best guess is that someone rerouted the exhaust from the hot water boilers, they obviously tampered with the carbon monoxide detectors, too, we’ll need to take a closer look to figure out how since they came up clear initially. ” 

Alex nodded weakly and shut his eyes 

“No, Alex, stay with me.” Ben said shaking his arm, his shoulder gave a twinge which pulled him back to reality. 

“M  _ tired _ , Ben.” He all but whined.

“I know” The man said softly “and you did a really good job today but you have to stay with me.”

“Tom?”

“Will be fine.” He assured, “I’d check but I can’t have you going to sleep.”

“I’ll stay awake, promise.”

“You’re not a very good liar, Alex.”

“Am too”

“Not right now, you’re not.” There was some amusement in his voice.

Alex couldn’t bring himself to be all that mad at him. “Jerk.” He murmured, closing his eyes again. 

Ben shook him and he glared back at him. “Tell me how you figured it out.”

He was trying to get him to talk. Alex needed to stay awake. Right. “Noticed that I was really tired and hot so I texted you about the AC then looked up and saw everyone was tired even the lecturer and he hadn’t been in as long. Then I saw Camille and figured since she was the smallest she’d take it the worst if it was some kind of gas. Grabbed Aria and….” He paused as the realization hit him. “I should have grabbed Tom.” He said guiltily 

“You did the right thing. Aria is the target and she’s smaller.”

“Tom’s my best mate and I almost got him killed.”

“It wasn’t going to kill him to be in there for a few seconds longer. You did the right thing.”

“Wasn’t enough” he groused

“We thought we had all the precautions set up for it, no one saw this coming”

“I should have. That’s my job. This is the oldest trick in the book. Jet would have had my head.”

“Who’s Jet?” 

“One of the instructors at Malogosto. She covered poisons, mostly botanical and chemical but gases too.” He wasn’t supposed to talk about this but he was too tired to keep the words from spilling out.

“What’s Malagosto?” Ben asked.

Alex froze but before he could say more a paramedic came bursting into the room with an oxygen tank and mask. Alex breathed a sigh of relief. Ben must have heard it because he shot him a significant look. This conversation was not over. 

It didn’t take long to get the oxygen flowing. Ben had left in the meanwhile presumably to check on the operation, and likely Tom because he was just that kind of guy. He pointedly ignored the fact that two agents had joined him in the room and were standing at the door, likely to ensure he didn’t leave. Ben was smart enough not to trust him alone in the care of a medical professional. It wasn’t entirely unwarranted. He could probably blame jumping out of the hospital window in Sophia for that. Caracas too. But Alex wasn’t going anywhere fast right now. 

By the time Ben returned half an hour he was feeling significantly more human. He was still tired but the oxygen was slowly perking him up. He rolled his eyes at the cot and a stack of blankets he was carrying “I’ll be  _ fine _ , Ben, I can sit.” He said, voice muffled by the plastic mask. 

The man ignored him as he set up the cot against the wall with practiced ease “You can. But you can also lay down and get comfortable because you and I need to talk.”

This was what he had been dreading ever since the man left the room. Alex eyed the oxygen tank contemplatively, there was no way he could get out  _ with _ it but he could probably escape without it…

“Alex.” Ben must have sensed where his thoughts were going. “I’ve made your report to Cole, Aria and Tom will be fine, all everyone needs is a few hours of oxygen. They all think you passed out when you got out of the room so no one’s going to come looking for you here.”

He didn’t mean it to be ominous but with the talk ahead of them, Alex felt like it was. “How are you explaining me grabbing Aria?” 

“We’re not.” Ben patted the top of the now made up cot and Alex reluctantly pulled himself up from his spot and allowed Ben to move his tank and hose closer. “No one is probably going to ask, everyone’s too shaken up with their own experience to remember what you did. If they do we’ll come up with something but for now we’ll let sleeping dogs lie.” 

Alex nodded and settled against the wall, pulling his legs up to his chest defensively. 

“Alex” Ben sighed and sat on the other end, angling next to him. “I know you don’t want to talk about this but we need to get out.”

“Ben” he sounded scared even to his own ears. And he was. His time with SCORPIA did not evoke pleasant memories but it was more than that. It was a secret he had kept from Ben for good reason - he was afraid it would make him break off their partnership. Alex had turned traitor. He had been young and stupid but he was still that. Their partnership worked because Ben trusted Alex to make good decisions to save both of their lives. Going to SCORPIA showed that he couldn’t be trusted to make those decisions and in a big way. It was 2 years behind him but it would never be far enough. Alex would take a sniper over this talk any day. 

“It’s fine, Alex, nothing you can say is going to affect our relationship.” He was a mind reader sometimes and Alex hated him for it. The man waited patiently but when it was clear Alex wouldn’t open up on his own he turned to questioning “What is Malagosto?”

“An island off of Venice.” He hedged but it was too late. Ben wouldn’t let this go. At least if he told him while he was injured the man was less likely to hit him for being so stupid.

“And it’s a school?”

“Yeah, for assassins.”

Ben’s eyes widened “MI6 sent you to an assassin school?” When? it would have been before we were partners, right?”

Alex settled with a nod, happy to dodge the minefield that was the first part of the question.

“So you were, what? 14?” 

Another nod and the room went silent as he processed that “I failed.” Ben looked up “Kinda…I couldn’t pull the trigger.”

“They’re the ones who taught you to shoot?” Ben was taking it easy on him and that somehow made Alex feel worse

“My Uncle did originally, traditional shooting only. They’re the ones who taught me instinctive shooting. You’re familiar?” He asked tentatively

“Yeah, they cover it in training. Can’t teach it or anything just tell us if they see someone doing it to run. I didn’t want to ask when I saw you using it in the range. I figured you’d tell me eventually.” 

Alex winced. 

“It’s okay, Alex” The man affirmed like he was talking to a skittish colt “It wasn’t important at the time. I just needed to know that you can take care of yourself with a gun. You put all of my fears to rest.” 

The room lapsed into silence. 

“They taught me a lot - how to shoot, poison, bomb, and everything in between. Yermalov got me started in a few other martial arts, Ross taught me about guns and knives and a million other weapons and how to use them and care for them, Dr. Three taught me about pressure points and breaking bones and torture and how to resist it. Everyone there was so helpful and kind and I soaked it in like a sponge. I was top of my class. But when the time came I couldn’t pull the trigger. Looking back now they put me in the field too early, if they had given it a few months I’d probably have succeeded and still be working for them. But one of the board members was out for revenge and wanted me dead and…” he was rambling. He had probably lost Ben long ago but he needed to get it out there.

“So this wasn’t for MI6?”

“No, this was SCORPIA.” He held his breath, hoping that maybe Ben had been too new by the time he took down SCORPIA to really appreciate just what that meant. Luck was not on his side as the man sucked in a sharp breath. 

“You...you were the one who took them down. You were the agent that stopped Invisible Sword.”

“Yeah” 

“They had us running around like crazy trying to figure it out, you know. Everyone was made to read through the files just to see if we could generate some ideas. We were all relieved when word came that it had been taken down, I should have known that you would be behind it.” The man smiled kindly and Alex didn’t deserve that.

“Ben….they...I…there’s something you need to know.” He said softly

“Alex it’s fine. It was a mission I’m not mad at you for doing what needed to be done, even if that was failing out of assassin school.”

“No, Ben...it wasn’t a mission.” the last word was barely more than a whisper

“What?” There was an earnest confusion on the man’s face, like he couldn’t quite process that Alex would do that. Fuck, how did this keep getting  _ harder _ . 

“It wasn’t a mission, I went willingly.” The words were hard to come by at first but then flowed out “I sought out SCORPIA. I wanted to join them. My Dad had worked for them but I didn’t know that it was as a double agent for MI6. After how Blunt had treated me they seemed like the better option. I was stupid, so stupid but MI6 wouldn’t let me go and I didn’t know where to turn and when I found out about my Dad it just made sense.” 

He could feel tears prickling at his eyes and a reassuring hand came to rest on his back, rubbing soothing circles and Alex didn’t  _ deserve _ it. 

“They told me Jones had killed him, my Dad, they had video of her ordering a sniper to take him out at a prisoner exchange, it was fake but I didn’t know it, he was trying to get out of working as a double agent because Mum was pregnant with me, and I didn’t know until later that SCORPIA were the ones who killed my parents and they sent me to kill Mrs. Jones, and I thought she had done it so I went, but when I got to her apartment I couldn’t do it and…”

“Alex. Breathe.” Ben ordered calmly.

And he took a few breaths that sounded more like sobs and then gave into the tears that had been threatening the whole time. Ben had his arms wrapped around him in an instant. 

“Alex, it’s okay.” He murmured 

“It’s not.” He hiccuped in return

“It is. It’s okay. You made a mistake.”

“I joined a terrorist organization.”

“Your mistakes tend to be bigger than others.” Ben joked and that calmed Alex more than anything he could have said “Alex you were 14 and being blackmailed by the government, you were looking for a way out and no one can fault you for that. You shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. Blunt should have told you about your past so you didn’t make that mistake. Knowing him he probably  _ wanted _ you to go to them.”

“What?” He had never considered that. SCORPIA had always been  _ his _ mistake. The one thing he couldn’t blame anyone else for. 

“Alex. Think. If Blunt truly wanted to keep you away from SCORPIA all he would have had to do was tell you that they killed your parents.”

“I would have tried to get my revenge.”

“But you never would have joined them. Their agents couldn’t have used your past against you like they did to get you in the doors. He wanted you to find them, Alex, he wanted you to join them so you could take over your father’s role as a double agent.”

Alex let out a string of very nasty swear words in Russian.

“Language.” Ben chided but there was no real bite. 

He probably felt the same, but one of Ben’s most ridiculous and endearing traits was that he didn’t curse in front of Alex. 

“I would have stayed.” Alex wasn’t sure why he said it but it needed to get it all out there. 

“I know. You were 14, Alex, they preyed on that.”

“I went there first.”

“Because Alan Blunt pushed you to. After the way he used you it wouldn’t be hard to make you like it there. All they had to do was treat you like an equal, you probably craved that. Still crave that.” 

Alex winced, he wasn’t wrong but hearing someone say it made it more real than he would like.

“I’m not stupid, Alex. I watch you fight an uphill battle every single mission. You only get treated like an adult when it’s convenient. I’ve always thought it was insane that you are considered adult enough to go on missions and get tortured but not adult enough to carry a gun. It’s even worse now that I know about your training.”

Ben sighed. 

“Alex, look at me.”

He hadn’t even realized that he was studying the tacky conference room carpet. But he wasn’t surprised. The idea of looking Ben in the eye right now brought an almost physical pain. But Ben has listened and hadn’t blown up like he had every right to, the least Alex could do was obey.

“I want you to listen very carefully, can you do that?” 

He nodded, worrying his lip. Ben was talking to him like a child, but he kind of deserved that. He certainly felt like one right now.

“I’m not mad at you for going to SCORPIA. With the information you had and the situation you were in, I probably would have done it to. I’m not mad at you for liking SCORPIA, I’m surprised they were stupid enough to mess it up it but I’m not mad at you because they would do everything in their power to make you like it there and Blunt didn’t make it very hard. I’m not mad at you for not telling me about it. I wish you would have earlier but I understand why you didn’t.”

“Then what are you mad about?” He asked tentatively 

“Nothing, Alex. Maybe that you were put in that position in the first place. But I’ve always been mad about that. I’m not mad at you. You’re my partner. Nothing you say or do is going to change that short of you getting killed. And if you do I will find a way to resurrect you so that you’ll be stuck with me forever.”

“A fate worse than death.” Alex joked then sobered “I don’t deserve you as a partner.”

“You really deserve better since I don’t exactly make it easy on you either. But I doubt either of us is going to convince the other that we should break up.” 

No. There was nothing Ben could say that would ever convince him to put in for a change. He trusted Ben with his life and that trust came even easier now that Ben knew about the darkest part of his past and still trusted him at his back. 

He wanted to say more, to tell Ben just how much he meant to him while both of them had their guards down and  _ weren’t _ dying for once but he was stopped by a yawn. The man smiled patiently down at him, “That was a lot, you need to rest. The medic said that it should be safe after an hour.” 

He moved to get up but Alex grabbed his wrist. “Stay?” He asked tentatively. For all that he felt fine now he wasn’t sure how he would feel if he woke up and Ben was gone. He trusted the man when he said he wasn’t mad at him now but things could change when he had time to think about it...

“Of course,” his partner said softly and moved the pillow at the top of the cot, taking a seat against the wall. Alex stared at him in confusion but then realization struck as the man wrapped a hand around his shoulder and pulled his head down into his lap. 

Alex should protest. The position was hardly manly. But he didn’t care right now because he knew that this was just another way for Ben to communicate that he cared and that he really wasn’t upset and probably a million other things that Alex didn’t understand right now because he was so  _ tired _ . He didn’t have much more time to think about it other than to register the soothing hands threading through his hair and then he was asleep.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Tom woke up to a pounding headache and voices speaking quietly in the hallway just outside the room that he and the other boys had been put into to recover from the carbon monoxide. They had been told it was a leak from the boilers and that everyone would make a full recovery but what still bothered him was how Sprintz had known. 

Had he done it? After everything else he wouldn’t put it past him except that even the organizers and hotel representatives said it was an accident. And it was severe enough that Sprintz had apparently passed out from it. He would deny to anyone who asked that he had been worried when he hadn't seen him in the room. He didn’t  _ like _ the boy but he didn’t want him  _ dead _ either. He was here now, though, and off oxygen so he was fine, better than Tom at any rate. 

“He doesn’t look okay” 

“He’s fine, he just needs a little oxygen, he and everyone else’ll be up and about by dinner.” that was probably the kindest he’d ever heard Mr. Holloway speak to Sprintz but then Sprintz wasn’t acting like a total prat for once. “Come on, Cole’s expecting us.”

“Can...can you have someone let me know when he’s back up?”

“Yeah, I’ll talk to Anne, she’s one of the medics...” Mr. Holloway’s voice was fading as they presumably walked down the hall. 

Tom cracked his eyes - he still felt nauseous and his head was pounding but all he could think about was why was  _ David Sprintz _ of all people sounded worried about him.

  
  



	6. Day 5

* * *

**Day 5: Sniper**

Tom was so grateful that he only had 2 more hours of the project left. An hour of breakfast and then an hour back to the airport and he would be done. Aria and Camille had been good company but he obviously didn’t fit in their circles and never would. He would never hear from them again even if they had exchanged numbers. It had mainly been to talk about Sprintz and that was someone he was grateful to never have to see again. It wasn’t so much that Sprintz had  _ done _ anything, not recently. If anything, he was more reserved than normal, likely from the carbon monoxide. Tom hadn’t exactly been feeling at his best either but he had been doing his best to try and cheer up a still shaken Aria and Camille. 

Sprintz, though, just sat there, occasionally glancing up with just the barest hint of relief in his eyes. He didn’t really understand what had changed to make the rich prat act so weird. The paramedic had said that the exposure could cause confusion. Maybe that was it? Either way it was weird and he just wanted to get as far away from him as he could. He may not have caused the carbon monoxide leak but he  _ had  _ done and said a bunch of other stupid things that Tom still hadn’t forgiven him for and never would. 

Not that he was asking for it either. Sprintz had spent their last meal staring moodily at the breakfast that had been put before him, pointedly ignoring Mr. Holloway’s farewell talk to them. 

The mentor caught on and nudged him “Eat.” He ordered and David obediently scooped some eggs on his fork and ate them, chewing exaggeratedly. 

Holloway shot him an exasperated look but had left the table anyways after a chorus of goodbyes from the rest of them.

As soon as Holloway was out of earshot Aria pounced, “Not hungry, Sprintz? I hear withdrawal can do that.”.

He looked up with a sneer but then something in him changed. He stiffened, face suddenly serious, and then he was all action, tackling her to the ground. 

“What is your  _ prob…. _ ” She began but the sound of a gunshot and shattered glass 

stopped her from saying more.

“Everyone down!” Mr. Holloway ordered, cutting through the startled screams. 

Tom was on the floor in an instant, eyes locked on Aria who was being bodily covered by Sprintz. 

“Got her.” Ms. Rose had crawled over and David moved awkwardly off of her. It took Tom a moment to realize why he was being so weird - he was keeping his body between the line of sight from the window and her. 

He was shielding her. 

Fuck. 

He had been  _ so _ wrong about him. 

Someone was obviously after Aria. Had just tried to shoot her. And Sprintz had known. He had known yesterday too with the carbon monoxide when he pulled her from the room. Which brought everything else into the question - the fight outside, and the argument at dinner and the smoke bomb. Suddenly, they all took on a darker meaning. Had Sprintz been protecting her those times too?

“Status?” The teen asked, pulling a pistol from behind his back and angling himself behind a chair, head turned toward the window. 

He couldn’t hear a reply but there had obviously been once since Sprintz was talking. An earpiece. It had to be. “We don’t have  _ time _ .” The boy said through clinched teeth. “Does anyone have a mirror?” He demanded

There was a beat of shock before he saw movement near him, Camille was digging through her purse. A moment later she tossed a compact at him. Sprintz snatched it out of the air and angled it to give him a view of the building across the street. Tom heard him take a deep breath, once, twice and then the mirror exploded into shards but at the same time Sprintz was standing and firing a shot. . 

There were more screams and then the room went silent. Filled only with the heavy breaths of people panting from adrenaline.

“3rd story. 7th room on the east side. He’s down.” Sprintz said, his voice pinched with pain

“How do you know?” Mr. Holloway asked. 

“Ben.” He said plainly as though that was enough explanation. 

Apparently it was, Mr. Holloway was by Sprintz in a flash, studying his hand with concern, “Come on, let’s get that looked at.”

“I’m  _ fine _ .” He hissed

“That was an order, not a suggestion.”

He thought David was going to snap something back but his shoulders sagged. “Fine. We need to debrief anyways.”

Mr. Holloway led him out of the room. Tom wasn’t given much time to dwell on it as he was hurried from the room by what must be agents of some kind. 

They were led to another conference room, this time with no windows, and the situation had been explained by an official looking man - there had been an assassination attempt. It had been stopped. Everything would be fine. Once the entire situation was clear everyone would be allowed to go home. For now they were to remain in here while the agents wrapped everything up.

Snacks and drinks had been brought in. Nobody made any move for the food but almost everyone had a mug of something hot in their hands. A few of the more shaken up girls had blankets wrapped around their shoulders. Tom’s own mug trembled violently in his hands. Shock and Adrenaline. He had seen it enough on Alex when he caught him fresh from a mission. 

Alex. 

It couldn’t be him. He had been in London, he said he was going to be pulled onto a mission when they talked on the first day. But he couldn’t get over how similar their faces were, how familiar the deadly serious look he had adopted when Aria came under fire was. It couldn’t be though. Alex would have told him. Would have warned him. It wasn’t too far fetched that there would be another teenage spy. This time working for MI5 because they had taken credit for stopping the assassination attempt. 

God he had been such a dick too. 

_ Druggy _ ?

What the hell was wrong with him? 

Realistically he knew Sprintz had done everything he could to earn that title but still...he had never really considered himself a bully and he had _definitely_ acted like one. No better than all the kids at Brookland had been to Alex. Saying the same awful things, had even taken inspiration from them in a sick way of getting him back for being what Alex was always accused of. Other than their brief confrontation in the room Sprintz had barely even said anything in response, let alone thrown a punch even though he _obviously_ could have. He had just taken it and done his job, saved Aria even though she had been a complete bitch to him. In Sprintz’s shoes he wasn’t sure he could say he would do the same. He wanted to say he would, had always imagined he would react heroically when danger came knocking but when Mr. Holloway had yelled for them to get down, he hadn’t tried to protect Camille who was just as vulnerable. He had just protected himself. It was normal, he knew that. It was how most people reacted in danger. But he had always imagined himself to be different, to be like Alex who threw himself in the line of fire for others more times than either of them could count. 

Despite everything Alex had told him, he had always secretly wanted to go on a mission with him. It was stupid, when he knew the very real toll they took on him - heard the fear in his voice when he talked about them, saw the scars, knew that Alex had  _ terrible _ nightmares that kept him up until early in the morning. But at the end of the day, the idea of the danger and heroics had still sounded cool.

It wasn’t.

It  _ really _ wasn’t. 

And he knew that now. Knew that having a sniper target someone else was tame compared to the shit Alex got put through but he was still fucking terrified and on edge and didn’t feel like he would ever come off of it. 

He wanted to talk to Alex, needed to, really. Needed help on how to deal with this, maybe his therapist’s name and number while he was at it. But Alex was on mission….right? There was still a nagging doubt that this  _ was _ Alex’s mission. That Sprintz was Alex and he wasn’t sure how that would make him feel. Guilty for being a dick? Probably. Sorry for wanting his life? Absolutely. Angry that Alex had probably gotten him mixed up in this? ...he would need confirmation that Sprintz was Alex before he started on that train of thought. He needed to know. Mind made up, he slipped out of the room under the excuse to use the restroom and drifted down the hall, hoping against hope that he would find Sprintz. 

He heard his voice a few doors down.

“....need some sleep. I’m knackered.”

“Well if you had slept like a normal person...”

“She would have died from the attacker on night 2. This is why  _ I’m _ the senior agent.”

“By 4 months.”

“In that time I had already single handedly stopped 2 criminal masterminds.” 

It was Alex. 

It had to be. 

It still came out as a question. “Alex?” 

Sprintz turned to him with a blank look “Who?” 

Tom relaxed. It wasn’t Alex. He didn’t know why that relieved him as much as it did. Maybe because it wasn’t  _ his _ friend who had used his body as a shield against a sniper. “Sorry, you just...reminded me of someone. I’ll be going.”

He hurriedly beat a retreat back to the room, fumbling to pull his phone from his pocket. His hands still weren’t steady. Probably wouldn’t be for a while. But he needed to text Alex because  _ fuck _ if this was how he felt after every mission Tom owed him an apology. 

  
  


…………..

  
  


Alex shot Ben an accusing glare but they didn’t say anything until his footsteps faded. Even then Ben went and checked before closing the door.

“You should have warned me.”

“You should have told him.” The man returned. 

“He doesn’t need to know.”

“Really, Alex? He’ll figure it out eventually. You should have gotten it over with before he has time to think about it.”

“I didn’t ask for advice,  _ Ben _ .” He snapped but knew he was right. Knew that now would have been the perfect time. But there was still a chance that Tom would never figure it out. Alex could lie his way out of anything once they were back in Chelsea. The hand injury could be disguised with a cast and he could add some more ‘injuries’ with makeup to make it believable. It would take some work but it was better than Tom finding out Alex had put him in this much danger, no matter how unintentional it may have been. “Look, can we go?”

His partner just surveyed him in that disapproving way that told Alex he was being immature and naive. Alex did  _ not _ want to deal with that lecture right now. 

He sighed and slumped against the wall, arms folded over his chest. “It would crush him to know he treated me like the rest of them do.”

That obviously hadn’t been what Ben had expected. Perfect. “What do you mean?”

“Druggy. That’s what everyone called me at school and Tom was the only one who stuck by me and believed me. It’s going to hurt him enough to know he did it to someone else. It would be worse if he knew it was me.”

“He’ll figure it out.”

“I hope not, for his sake.”

“You’re not going to hold it against him?”

“Be stupid to, our minds look for the most logical explanation for things we don’t understand. Teen spy isn’t high on the list for anyone except maybe Alan Blunt. Besides, my behavior was objectively awful here. I would hate me too.”

“You never cease to amaze me, Alex.” Ben smiled, shaking his head fondly, earlier disapproval forgotten. Alex breathed a sigh of relief. “We have to go check in with Cole and then we can head back home.”

The op center had quieted but Cole was still there in the middle, sleeves rolled up but far calmer than any other time he had seen him. 

“You did good, Rider, really good.”

Alex nodded 

“Everything wrapping up?”

“Yeah, we should have a name soon.”

“How’a the sniper?” Alex asked, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. It had been a tricky shot and was closer to the heart than he wanted, there wasn’t a whole lot of room for error.

“Injured so we’ll get to interrogate. Glad you missed.”

“He didn’t.” Ben said plainly and Alex shot him a venomous look. This conversation did  _ not _ need to happen.

“Well he’s not dead.” The man stated looking at Alex with a raised eyebrow. He obviously had enough faith in his abilities that he didn’t automatically brush off the idea. Great. 

Alex couldn’t disagree, not without throwing Ben under the bus, which he would never do. Ben was such a prat for putting him in this position, he thought bitterly. But that wasn’t fair. Ben didn’t mean any harm, he was Alex’s biggest cheerleader and whenever someone on their side underestimated his skill he always corrected them. His shooting skills had been added to that too apparently, dubiously acquired though they were. 

Alex sighed “No, he took a round to his left shoulder, figured odds were good he’d be right handed.”

“How…” there was a note of disbelief in his voice. Alex understood. The implication that came with it was not a pleasant one. Not for someone of his age. But right now Alex didn’t care.

“Cole.” he said pointedly “How do you think someone becomes an expert in assassination techniques?”

He waited and could almost  _ see _ the pieces click together. 

“Fuck.” He breathed and Ben frowned behind him.

“Yeah. Anything you want to ask is classified so we’ll leave it at that.” 

The man looked pained but nodded slowly, seeming to gather himself. “It was good working with you, Agent Rider, Agent Daniels.” 

He supposed being acknowledged as an agent was the biggest compliment he would get out of the man. It also meant they could leave. Thank God. 

“You as well” Ben spoke for them, definitely one of his better traits. Bless him. 

Ben waited until they were in the hallway before speaking again. “I still have the Aston Martin, want to go for a ride before I take you back home?”

“That'd be great but I might fall asleep.”

Ben gave him a once over “You really must be tired to not ask to drive.”

“I don’t think it’d be safe right now. Raincheck?”

Ben tousled his hair fondly and looped an arm around his shoulders. “Yeah, kid, raincheck.”


	7. Aftermath

1 month later found Tom searching through the fridge at Alex’s for the root beer that he had put in there yesterday but Alex had probably drank because he was an addict.

“Grab me a Coke while you’re at it!” Alex shouted from the living room and Tom rolled his eyes, pulling one out. 

He swore his friend was going to rot his teeth out one day. Just because Ian hadn’t let him have soft drinks didn’t mean he had to go crazy. Then again he supposed that it wasn’t the worst vice Alex could have picked up after everything he’d been through.

He set them on the counter then hesitated as he spotted a familiar white box. He shouldn’t look. Really shouldn’t but…

He shot a cautious glance in the living room to see Alex sprawled over the couch idly flipping through something on his phone. Safe. At least for the moment. He quietly popped open the lid and felt his stomach drop. 

It was the Duke of Edinburgh Award. 

Of course it was.

It had been him then.

Sprintz was Alex.

And he hadn’t _told_ him. 

He snatched it out of the box and stormed into the living room.

“It was you wasn’t it?” There was less bite in the words than he thought himself capable of. 

Alex looked up there was a flash of something but then his face was schooled into a puzzled expression. “Who was me?”

Damn it, Alex.

“Sprintz. You were Sprintz.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about. Jones put me in for the award…”

“Don’t lie to me, Alex. You _promised_ you wouldn’t.”

He sighed and sat up, seeming more resigned than anything “I’m sorry.” He hesitated “Are you mad?”

“ _Am I mad_? Alex, I was just as bad as everyone at Brookland!”

Alex shrugged “You didn’t know and I was a total prat.”

“Yeah you were - for not telling me.” 

“I’m sorry, but you couldn’t know. Not if I was going to be able to do my job. It was hard enough getting you cleared for the program.” 

Alex had asked that he be able to go. 

He didn’t know why that was surprising. It shouldn’t be. Of course he would. He probably _really_ hadn’t wanted to get Tom mixed up with his work. Ever. But he had done it because he _knew_ Tom wanted the award so bad. And _damn_ Alex being such a good friend after what he had put him through in Brighton made it _worse_. 

“If you had told me it wouldn’t have been as hard. I made your life hell.” 

Alex shrugged, “I’ve had worse.”

He had. Much worse. But the difference was that it was _Tom_ and really after his time at Brookland he should have known better.

“I was such a dick. I can’t believe I fell for all that.”

“Honestly, Tom, it’s fine. If you had been able to recognize who I was then I would be absolute shite at my job.”

“Are you saying I’m stupid?” he joked

“No” Alex was serious, because _of course_ he was. “I’m a _spy_ , Tom. My job is being able to put on a face and maintain it no matter what comes my way and fulfill my mission.”

_Fulfill his mission_ that was something else that bothered him. “and what was your mission?”

“Protect Aria Sharpova”

“From what?”

Alex looked uncomfortable “We didn’t know exactly who…”

“From _what_ Alex.” He already knew the answer but he needed to hear it from him.

“Assassination” he said softly

His mind went blank. He knew it was that. Had guessed that was Sprintz’s mission while he was lying on the floor hiding from a _sniper_ . But it was different when it was Alex because it had been _him_ shielding her with his body and it had been _him_ who requested he be there in the first place. “You asked for me to get placed in the middle of an assassination attempt.”

He winced “I just asked that you be put in the project. Jones had you placed in our group.”

“What? As some kind of test for you?”

“No. We had to have a normal group size and you were a known quantity. We couldn’t exactly trust anyone to not be compromised.”

“That’s fucking stupid we’re just teen...” he began but trailed off. Bit dense of him to think that being a teen would change anything given he had spent 5 days sitting next to a teenage spy 

Alex‘s arched eyebrow said that he agreed. “Tom, the whole reason I was there was because I was trained at Malagosto. Me being her age was a _perk._ ” And yeah there was _that._ It was easy to forget about Alex’s “training”. Mainly because Alex tried to forget it about himself. “Look I’m sorry you got caught up in everything. I really thought I could keep you safe.”

He paused unsure if he wanted the answer to his next question. “How many attempts did you stop.”

“5” 

He wanted to lean into that number, it wasn’t too bad but there had been just a second of hesitation. There was more. The sheer number of people who had poured in after the carbon monoxide and sniper told him that it was a far larger operation. 

“That was it?”

“Sorry that my number disappoints you.” Alex joked but it came across as hollow

“Seriously, Alex.”

He sighed “You sure you want to know?” 

No. But yes. He wouldn’t get it out of Alex if he didn’t ask now. The only reason he was telling him in the first place was because he felt guilty. With that gone Alex would never tell him. He nodded. 

“33”

His mind went blank. He could have died 33 ways. Well...not that many. They really were only gunning for Aria but these weren’t the type of people who would care if someone was killed in the crossfire. The carbon monoxide had shown that.

“I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.” Alex said hurriedly. 

“It _did_ happen, Alex. I got carbon monoxide poisoning just like everyone else and that’s not counting the sniper or whatever you smoke bombed the dinner for the first night.” He ran his hands through his hair. 33 times. Someone had tried to kill them 33 times. And Alex had _asked_ for him to be there, had _put him in the line of fire_. “I need to go. I need to think.”

“Tom…”

“Not right now, Alex.” He snapped “I know almost being killed is normal for you but…” he took a breath. He needed to leave before he said something he would regret “I need to go.”

He was out the door before Alex could stop him. 

  
  
  


2 days later he found Mr. Holloway at his door. 

“I take it your name isn’t Mr. Holloway.”

“No” the man said with a faint smile. “I’m Ben Daniels, Alex’s partner.”

Alex had mentioned having a partner, had spoken very highly of him, had said he owed his life to him a million times over. Alex didn’t respect many people but Ben Daniels definitely made the list which was all that kept him from slamming the door in his face.

“Did he send you here?” 

“No. I found him at the range, he was upset. I knew there was only one thing that could cause that.” 

And what did that say about what Alex had told Ben about _him_? “Did he tell you why?”

Ben shook his head with a small amount of fond amusement “He wouldn’t. I can guess what it was about, though. I came to see if maybe I could answer any questions you might have.”

Tom hesitated, Ben was only here to protect Alex. But he believed him when he said Alex hadn’t sent him, especially since they hadn’t talked in 2 days. 

“I’m pissed at him.” He warned

“I don’t blame you. I signed up to be thrown into danger with him, you didn’t.” But he did, being Alex’s friend meant being in danger. Maybe not to the same extent as in Brighton but still it was there. 

He gestured the man in. He didn’t want to have this talk but at least his parents were at work so they could do it without dodging plates. 

Ben took a seat on the couch and there was a beat of silence where he waited for Tom to speak. When he didn’t the spy took his cue “I know you’re mad and you have every right to be but for what it’s worth he honestly thought it wouldn’t be that risky. There were 3 MI5 teams assigned to the operation not to mention Alex and myself. It should have been well controlled.”

“I could have been killed.”

“You’re right.” Ben nodded the _But you weren’t_ went surprisingly unspoken. It occurred to him that Ben was used to working with Alex who was still a teen himself. He was probably used to tip toeing around his volatile emotions and hormonal outbursts.

“You’re not doing a very good job at defending him.”

“That’s not why I’m here.” Tom arched an eyebrow “Alright it is a little but nothing I say in his defense is going to change your opinion. All I can do is give you the information you need to make an informed decision about where to go from here. 

“And if I decide to tell him to piss off?”

“That’s up to you.” Ben shrugged “Alex would be devastated to lose you but he would understand. Knowing his guilt complex he probably knows he deserves it.”

“He does.”

“To an extent.” Ben hedged “He made a mistake, he thought he was helping you but didn’t really think it through. For all his skills he’s not perfect. He struggles the most when making decisions about the people he cares about. I’ve been in the same place you are more than I’d like to admit.”

“What’d he do to you?”

Ben just shook his head “That’s not why I’m here.”

“But you’re still his partner?” 

“Alex is a hard headed, frustrating, little nightmare most of the time but I know that when I’m in the crosshairs there is _nothing_ he wouldn’t do to save me.”

“Didn’t really seem that way in Brighton.”

“That’s because there wasn’t an immediate threat to you. If he knew who was behind the attacks he would have gone after them.” Ben frowned. “I hope you never really get to see that side of him.”

“Kind of hoping I never see him again to be honest.” He didn’t mean it, not really.

“It’s not that easy with Alex. Even if you cut him completely out of your life right now he would still make sure MI6 kept tabs on you. And if something _did_ happen he would be there in a heartbeat whether you wanted him there or not.”

“He would probably be the cause it.” Tom pointed out, they were Alex’s enemies, after all, not his.

“Maybe, Ben acknowledged “But you don’t think that he would step in if you got in trouble with the law or if something jeopardized your career? Alex is nothing if not protective and loyal. Even if you gave up on him he would never give up on you.”

And damn he was right. 

“I know but… it’s just...I don’t know how he deals with it. Ever since I really _thought_ about it I can’t stop.”

“He doesn’t deal with it. Jones makes him see a psychotherapist but as far as I know Alex doesn’t really _talk_ about it. Sometimes he’ll break down and we’ll go through it but for the most part he keeps it bottled up.” He honestly hadn’t expected Ben to say anything that personal, the surprise must have shown on his face “I told you I’d give you the information you needed to make a decision.”

Tom nodded appreciatively “But he still does it.”

“He does and you know why he does it.” And he did. Alex had legitimately saved the world a dozen times over - nukes, viruses, plagues. “Your situation is different, though. You didn’t know what you were getting into.”

“He should’ve asked.”

“He couldn’t, but even if he did would it have changed your answer?”

“Probably not.” Not when he _really_ wanted that award. And especially not when he had always wanted to go on a mission with Alex. “I just wish he would have told me.”

“He couldn’t. He had his orders from the head of MI6 herself. It was a condition of you being brought along.”

“Since when has he listened to orders?” 

“Point” Ben smiled “But what would you have done if you had known?”

Tried to help. Which would have been even more dangerous.

The man must have known where his thoughts were headed “Alex made a mistake. He didn’t think things through and put your life in danger. But he really did mean well and he really did try his hardest to protect you when he realized what he had done.”

“I know.” Tom said with a sigh. It really was hard to be mad at him, he had tried to help and yeah, he fucked up, but he had apologized... “He’s still a prat.”

“He is.” Ben nodded. “Got any other questions?”

“If I said telling me embarrassing mission stories would help me forgive him would you share them?” 

Ben visibly relaxed at the knowledge that Tom would forgive Alex and _damn_ that said a lot about just how much he must mean to him. “Absolutely, I think you really need to appreciate the seriousness of Alex’s job so you can forgive him.” 

“I mean...it’s not like he’s held back much about you. He did tell me about the ice skating thing.”

“He swore he wouldn’t tell anyone! Oh it’s so on.” Ben was laying it on a little thick but Tom wouldn’t pass up the chance to get dirt on his best mate.

  
  


It was Ben who arranged the meeting. He was up far earlier than he ever thought he would willingly be but they needed privacy and, Ben pointed out, Alex needed to not feel trapped. So here he was at 7AM on a Saturday sitting on a bench near the park entrance. He could see the exact moment that Alex spotted him mainly because his friend physically froze. For a moment he thought Alex was going to run away but then he cautiously approached and stood just out of arm's reach. Smart. Not that Tom would hit him. Or could really. 

They stared at each other for a minute and surprisingly Alex gave in first. 

“I’m sorry.” And there was so much emotion in that.

“You should be.” Alex winced and looked at the ground. “But I forgive you.”

He snapped his head back up, searching his face to see if he really meant it then wilted “I don’t deserve it.”

“You don’t. But you’re still my best mate no matter how many bloody stupid things you do.” Just don’t…” he began awkwardly but Alex interrupted him

“Not again, never again.” He promised 

“You know you always tell me all about your missions but seeing you in action...you’re scary good mate.”

“Uh...thanks.” He said tentatively. He got that. Alex wasn’t necessarily proud of his skills. 

“Shame you’re not half as smooth off mission as you are on because you could definitely have at least made it to the first base.” 

“Oi! I kissed Sabina!”

“Non platonically.”

“You’re such an arse.” Alex huffed but there was no real venom there. It was obvious that he was just glad to have him back in his life and honestly forgiving Alex had helped him a little too.

“Yeah but I’m _your_ arse.” He said as they turned to head to the car park

“More like a pain it, but yeah, bout right.” 

“Want to grab a bite?” 

“Yeah, that’d be great. 

“Just don’t turn my plate into my lap, yeah?”

“You’re hysterical.”

Tom caught Ben’s eye from across the car park and nodded. The man smiled back.


End file.
